The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has asked the Federal Government to declare the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) a terrorist organization.

Musa Asake, General Secretary of CAN, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, said leaders of MACBAN should be arrested and prosecuted for genocide against the Christian minorities in the middle belt.

He argued that while the Federal Government had taken the battle to Boko Haram, the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), the Badoo boys, the Niger Delta Avengers and other groups, the government had not shown any serious willingness to checkmate the murderous Fulani herdsmen.

This, he said, shows a betrayal of the confidence reposed in the Federal Government by the citizens.

Asake said MACBAN was supposed to be a business group, much like many other businesses and professional groups in the country.

He lamented that the MACBAN differs from any other business group in that it combines bloodshed with enterprise.

He maintained that the Fulani herdsmen are clearly associated with MACBAN, noting that officials of the association were known to making inciteful statements before and after attack on vulnerable communities by Fulani herdsmen.

The CAN General Secretary stressed  that in recent attacks on Benue State, Garus Gololo, President of Benue Branch of Miyetti Allah, said they attacked the communities because 1,000 of their cows were stolen.

“Even if it was true that cows were stolen, who constituted Miyetti Allah into law enforcement agency, judge and jury to commit wholesale murder?” he asked.

He said that there is difference between Islam and Islamism, and called on all lovers of freedom and democracy in Nigeria to rise against the tyranny of the Islamists who “manipulate the religion of Islam for political and cultural domination”.

“President Muhammadu Buhari should overhaul the National Security Council with a view to sharing its membership equally between Christians and Muslims and possibly those who do not belong to either. No religion has a monopoly of competency, commitment and patriotism,” he said.

“Recently, the Federal Government once again dragged Nigeria to interfere in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by voting against the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at the United Nations. The non-aligned status of Nigeria demanded that Nigeria should have abstained from voting, either for or against, when the issue came up at the UN.

“Nigeria is a secular state and the issue of religion is supposed to be an individual conviction. While the choice of a nation’s capital is a political decision, the objection of the Palestinians to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in this case, has a lot of religious undertones.”