The Nobel Laureate said he would resist an attempt to chase him "out of my own entitled portion of the earth".
Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has questioned the proscription of the secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by the Nigerian government without doing the same to cattle breeders group, Miyetti Allah.
Mr Soyinka stated this when he appeared as a guest on Newsnight, a pre-recorded Channels TV's programme aired on Monday.
IPOB is a separatist group leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra which they want to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of South-south Nigeria.
The government proscribed the separatist group in 2017 and tagged it a terrorist organisation.
But Mr Soyinka expressed surprise that the government failed to also proscribe the Miyetti Allah despite hate speech and attacks allegedly carried out by the group across the country.
Recalling a threat statement credited to the Miyetti Allah spokesperson, Mr Soyinka suggested those who invade communities and want to repeat the "history of conquest" should rather be arrested and proscribed.
"Take for instance when the incursion of the Fulani herdsmen began. And the Miyetti Allah, their spokesman said, 'we once ruled this place, and we can take back our land anytime we want,'" he recalled.
"I said this person should be arrested and locked up. Who says he wants to repeat his history of conquest - he's admitting either knowledge before or after or support (for the invasion), anyway. Isn't there anything like hate speech anymore? Why are you proscribing IPOB without proscribing Miyetti Allah?" he said.
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Owo attack
Mr Soyinka condemned the attack on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, where scores of worshippers, including children, were killed by gunmen, suspected to be herders.
He said herders who invade communities are driven by what he termed "lunacy of subjugation mentality".
He, however, said he would resist the attempt by the group to chase him "out of my own entitled portion of the earth."
"The idea that you can unleash terror on me because you want my little patch of territory or you want my soul, that is you want to subjugate me, you want to turn me into a slave. Well, I would sort that out first," he said.
Putin-Herders Analogy
Mr Soyinka said the herders share similarities with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February, killing scores of people and destroying properties.
"Would you have anticipated Putin invading Ukraine? Bombarding civilians with such fiendish glee? And what is Ukraine's crime?
"And I ask myself what is the difference between Putin and the herdsmen who corner the lands of farmers and invade? They kill, they slaughter, they burn, scatter the families completely, and render them homeless overnight. They (herders) and Putin should get together. It is the same mentality," Mr Soyinka stated.
