By
Bamanga Abdullahi Gombi
Fulani community in Adamawa State has declared a boycott of cattle and conventional markets across Song Local Government Area over alleged humiliation and maltreatment by local authorities.
A member of the elders’ committee that made the decision at a meeting in Gombi, who pleaded anonymity, alleged that the local government leadership had overseen the destruction of several Fulani settlements in the past three months, leaving families displaced.
The committee member further alleged that Fulani leaders were summoned by local authorities, subjected to inflammatory remarks, publicly stripped by security personnel at the district head’s palace and detained for three days over unsubstantiated allegations.
Chairman of Adamawa Concerned Citizens, Alhaji Gambo Nakura, corroborated the account, saying the affected leaders had approached him for advice and intervention.
He alleged that efforts by prominent Song personalities to secure their release were frustrated until a court in Yola ordered their release after three days in detention.
One of the alleged victims, Mallam Haruna Usman, said their arrest and detention took place on Friday, October 2, 2026.
He explained that the Fulani community has associations, including Tabital Pulaaku International, Tabital Pulaaku Kautal Hoore, Miyetti Allah and Fulani Hunters, with mechanisms for addressing members’ misconduct and resolving disputes.
Usman alleged that instead of allowing these associations to address suspicious activities and settle disputes, the local government leadership resorted to intimidation, which he attributed to lingering political grievances from the last elections.
From the legal perspective, a lawyer based in Yola and Abuja, Mohammed Modibbo Bakari, said local government authorities have no constitutional powers to carry out the alleged actions against residents.
Bakari cited Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which guarantees the right to dignity of the human person, alongside protections for freedom of association, peaceful assembly and personal liberty.
He added that Articles One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Fourteen of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights also protect these rights.
Bakari said the Adamawa State Local Government Establishment Law contains no provision empowering local authorities to carry out the alleged acts.
Any law in the country that contradicts, violates or conflicts with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution is, by Section 1(3) of the Constitution, rendered null and void to the extent of that inconsistency, and the Constitution shall prevail.
” We know in the history there were time when the local government had some communal problems in the past in the area that have been healed for years.”
He described the alleged actions as violations of the victims’ fundamental human rights and said they could approach the Federal High Court or State High Court to seek enforcement of their rights and damages against those allegedly involved, including military personnel.
However, Major Olusegun Abidoye
Acting Assistant Director, Army Public Relations
23 Brigade, Yola said Army personnel did not participated in the arrest and detention of the Fulani leaders in Song Local Government Area.
” We didn’t make any arrest, it was hunters that arrested them and the Chairman of the local government directed that they should be handed over to the troops, but our personnel advised that, they should be taken to the civil police.”
He maintained that the Army operates professionally within its constitutional mandate and does not involve itself in civil matters of that nature.
Explaining the cultural significance of Pulaaku, Professor Bashir Usman Njidda Song, Head of the Department of Fulfulde at the University of Maiduguri, said traditional Fulani leaders, including Jauros, Greemas and Lamidos, have the authority to impose or lift Pulaaku sanctions on a town.
He explained that such sanctions are imposed when alleged maltreatment becomes intolerable and the community’s patience is exhausted.
” There are some consequences also in doing that, they know but they have no alternative than to impose the Pulaaku measure, that is the sanctioning against the people or the economic activities of the people of those areas that they were trying to channel their grievances to.”
Under the tradition, Fulani people are expected to suspend all commercial activities with the affected community in solidarity with the decision.
Professor Njidda said a Fulani man who unknowingly takes his cow to a market under sanction is expected to cut its tether and release the animal upon discovering the restriction, rather than take it home.
Similarly, a Fulani woman who unknowingly takes milk to such a market is expected to pour it on the ground and return home without her containers.
Efforts by Radio Nigeria to obtain the reaction of the Song Local Government leadership were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
