A respected Pro-Democracy and Non-Governmental organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to drop the ministers of Interior Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Danbazau (rtd) and Defence Major General Mansur DanAli (rtd) who are suspected to be alleged sympathisers of the national union of Fulani herdsmen accused of harbouring armed elements that are causing spectacular security nightmares for all of Nigeria through violent attacks of farming communities.
HURIWA asked President Muhammadu Buhari to remember that although he is in power now and enjoys immunity from both local and global criminal Prosecutions but he must have it at the back of his mind that a time will come when he will return as a private citizen and thereby losing his immunity and would then be subject to Europe wide international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands for these kinds of atrocities happening under his watch with all his ministers maintaining loud conspiratorial silence in the face of the brutal killings of over 7000 innocent Nigerians by armed Fulani herdsmen.
HURIWA said from available empirical data, the duo of Defence and Internal Security minister have collectively failed to lead the law-based fight to combat the increasing scope of blood cuddling attacks targeting different farming settlements by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen who are alleged to be waging wide ranging and properly coordinated and well armed and logistically formidable war to take over green areas of different farming communities inhabited by original indigenous groups who incidentally are Christians. "Mr President must be told that most Nigerians believe that the marauding Fulani herdsmen are indeed waging a nation wide Jihad to establish Fulani caliphate all across Nigeria. He as the President must be a statesman by categorically introducing workable panacea to these killings."
HURIWA in a media release accused the ministers of Defence and Interior of conspiratorial silence in the face of the bombardments of farming communities in Southern Kaduna; Benue State; Adamawa State and Plateau State amongst others by armed Fulani insurgents just as the Rights group quoted the minister of Interior as recently describing these mass murders by armed Fulani herdsmen as mere law and order matter even when global terrorism rating organisations have consistently considered the armed wing of the Nigerian indigenous Fulani herdsmen as the third most dangerous and highly potent international terrorists group. "President of Nigeria owes Nigeria and the citizens the legal obligations to stop the killings, arrest the culprits and prosecute the killers in the competent Courts of law after which if convicted should face the maximum penalty for mass murders".
Through a jointly authorised media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said that the minister of Defence who should provide policy guidelines and ensure that those commanding and controlling the extant national security architecture are fully directed to comprehensively activate mechanisms to treat the emerging armed Fulani terrorism as a serious threat to our national security interest, has chosen to play the ostrich and to continue to operate as a member of the Executive Council of the Federation when it is clear that both the ministries of Defence and Internal Security headed by the Kano State Fulani Minister of Interior Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Danbazau (rtd) have violated the Constitutional provisions which stipulates that the Primary duty of government is the security of lives and property of Nigerians and to ensure the welfare of the citizenry.
HURIWA submitted that the best panacea to ending the spectre of blood chilling attacks is for the Presidency to immediately reorganise the Internal Security team by appointing qualified and committed security experts who are statesmen/women and patriots whose political and Ethno-Religious affiliations will not becloud their sense of reasoning so government can fully and effectively implement fool- proof mechanisms to forensically root out the serious menace that armed Fulani insurgency has become so as to stop them from instigating deadly civil war which may break out should they continue to have all the logistical supports and backing from the top to operate as if they are above the law.
"The patience of all other Ethnic nationalities whose vulnerable members are being killed by armed Fulani herdsmen are running out particularly given the notorious fact that the current administration which is headed by a Fulani isn't willing to combat these terrorists and the serious threats they posed to the entire nation State. We pray a time will not come when all other victimised Ethnic groups would rise up simultaneously to inflict vicious revenge on the Fulani Ethnic people whose very tiny minority of members are the persons stoking this ember of disunity through targeted killings. We know that millions of law abiding Fulani people are peaceful. President Muhammadu Buhari must take charge, provide clear direction to his field commanders so these few bad eggs within the larger Fulani community are disarmed and punished legally".
HURIWA also accused President Muhammadu Buhari of failing to act decisively against these armed Fulani mass murderers when his administration refused to declare them a terrorists organisation even when known leaders of the Fulani herdsmen's association are seen addressing press conferences, issuing threats just before any major attacks are carried out against the same targeted communities that formed the thematic issues of such press conferences. "What type of a Nation State whose key national security officials pander to the whims and capricious overbearing influences of certain undesirable elements masquerading as cultural and trade union leaders of Fulani herdsmen whose rogue members are armed and are suspected of waging a war of attrition against mainly Christian dominated farming communities all over the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria? It is only in a lawless contraption that a Cabinet level officer holding the office of Minister of Interior will stay put in office even after a widening breakdown of internal security such as the incessant extreme violent attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen occur intermittently. Why has Nigerian Federal Government under the Presidency of the Fulani Katsina State born erstwhile Military dictator and now elected civilian President failed to carry thorough investigation to unravel the circumstances under which the Fulani herdsmen obtain deadly military type Weapons of mass destruction? Why has the Presidency failed to sack the security chiefs who have clearly failed in their constitutional mandates to protect the territory of Nigeria and her people from internal insurrection such as the frequent violent bloody attacks waged and coordinated by armed Fulani herdsmen? How can Nigeria move forward when the Head of government refuses to invest his trust on Nigerians of other affiliations outside of his native community to head the Interior and Defence Security architecture in a Federation of over 350 viabrant Ethnic nationalities harbouring vastly qualified and competent persons who can hold their own if accorded the high offices of Ministers of Defence and Internal Security? It is said that you can't do the same thing all the times and expect a different outcome. The crop of security chiefs and the Political heads of the Federal Ministries of Interior and Defence have spectacularly failed and/or refused to confront headlong one of Nigeria's most pressing threats to our national security-armed Fulani terrorists. Nigerians must speak out and mount pressure on the President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately change his highly compromised, weak and lukewarm Internal Security team whose membership are made up of person who are much more loyal to their mundane Ethno-Religious cleavages than to the Federal Republic of Nigeria".
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