Reports have re-emerged of a probable truce settlement between the Buhari administration and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) said to be worth N100 billion.

In 2019, Buhari administration officials led by interior minister at the time, Abdulrahman Dambazau, were widely reported to have held meetings with the leadership of the umbrella association of herdsmen in Kebbi State, wherein the said sum was allegedly offered to the group to put an end to wanton killings and kidnappings perpetrated by criminals suspected to be its members.

Roots TV coverage of the meeting was recirculated on Sunday, as tensions flared over deadly attacks linked to herdsmen and President Muhammdu Buhari’s failure to address the crisis.

This reportedly followed an initial N160 billion demanded by MACBAN. Miyetti Allah chief, Saleh Alhassan, who had admitted that N100 billion was indeed requested from the federal government, retorted that the money was intended for the construction of ranches to address farmer-herder crises.

Mr. Alhassan described as “mischievous” reports that the proposed funds were designated as amnesty payments to end kidnappings.

Reacting to the public outrage that greeted the alleged truce negotiations between the Buhari government and the herders, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu had strongly maintained that the issue of money was never raised at the controversial meetings.

“If they (Miyetti Allah) had raised it, this government would have dismissed them as yet another dubious group,” Mr. Shehu said in a statement mid-2019, adding that the Buhari administration had only moved to dialogue with the cattle breeders to find immediate solutions to farmers/herdsmen conflicts.

Fulani herdsmen have been repeatedly touted as key instigators of numerous violent atrocities being perpetrated by criminals, who occupy the forest reserves of many southern and north central states.

The cattle breeders association has, nonetheless, frowned at the discriminatory negative profiling of Fulani settlers, while urging citizens to dissociate criminals of Fulani extraction from the law-abiding ones.