A pro-democracy and Non-Governmental body – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS
ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop
comparing the rate of killings by armed Fulani herdsman/hoodlums in Zamfara,
Benue and Plateau states just as the Rights group says such insensitive
statements from the President amounts to undue chasing of shadows and paints
the President as a leader who takes joy in dancing naked on the graves of the
deceased.
Besides,
the Rights group has challenged President Buhari to direct the Department of
State Services (DSS), and the military to arrest key officials of the Miyetti
Allah Cattle Owners Association (MACBAN) including the regional official in
North Central Alhaji Danladi Ciroma who reportedly justified the killings in
Plateau state as a revenge for the alleged rustling of 300 cows.
Condemning
the decision of the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest notable
Christian leader in Jos Pastor Isa Elbuba for condemning the Fulani instigated
genocide across North Central, HURIWA described as despicable the sectional
approach to law enforcement and the selective persecution of Christian leaders
and the apparent immunity to kill farmers granted Miyetti Allah Association.
The Rights group warned that these incessant wrongful arrests of Christian
leaders and outspoken opposition politicians by the secret police under the
supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari just for expressing their disgust
over the lack of effective battle against armed Fulani insurgency. "Why is
the DSS picking and choosing who to arrest when in our very before the chairman
of MIYETTI Allah Cattle Owners Association confirmed that the 200 Plateau
indigenes were slaughtered because Fulani herdsmen lost 300 cows?. What can be
more direct circumstantial evidence linking Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners
Association to these attacks than this callous, reckless, irresponsible and
vicious comments by Danladi Ciroma?"
Describing
Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association as the most dangerous terrorist group
in Nigeria, HURIWA has therefore urged the United States government; the United
Kingdom; Germany and European Union to declare armed Fulani herdsmen backed by
Miyetti Allah Organization as a terrorist group. HURIWA says it is becoming
clearer just like daylight is to darkness that President Muhammadu Buhari has
not even the remotest political will to crush the armed Fulani herdsmen even as
the Rights group faulted Buhari's reliance on supernatural forces to end the
killings when the President has the powers under the Constitution to declare
armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorists and order the systematic and strategic
crushing of these killers whose sponsors have unveiled themselves as officials
of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association. Muhammadu Buhari was not elected as
a prayer or Ethno religious warrior but as the President of all Nigerians and
therefore must remain loyal to the Constitution or he resigns immediately and
allow a much more competent Person to step in and implement decisive steps to
combat the growing and expanding frontiers of armed Fulani terrorism in
Nigeria.
“We
are shocked that President Buhari has consistently attempted to down play the
gravity of the terror campaigns by armed Fulani herdsmen targeting largely
Christian minority communities in the North by illogically comparing the
casuality figures of the attacks in the Moslem dominated Zamfara state and the
Christian dominated North Central. This comparison is not only nebulous but
vexatious and toxic and will bring about mutual recriminations and divisions
amongst the various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria".
“Most
Nigerians we have talked to are in a bottomless pit of shock, trepidation,
traumatic panic, that Nigeria’s President has become the defender of Miyetti
Allah Cattle Owners Association to the detriment of the national security
interests of all of Nigeria. This is unconstitutional.”
“Why
should Mr. President use this sort of offensive comparison and narratives
concerning the death tolls recorded in Zamfara vis-à-vis those figures of the
deaths in Plateau, Benue and Taraba? The Commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s Armed
Forces should be seen ordering the arrest of the sponsors of these spates of
blood chilling attacks in which children, toddlers, babies, women, old
men/women and the sick are slaughtered by armed Fulani herdsmen. The government
must pick up the officials of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association of
Nigeria since there must be no sacred cows in the enforcement of the laws.”
“The
statement credited to President Buhari stating that less people are killed in
Plateau and Benue than Zamfara is both insensitive and reprehensible. All lives
are precious and sacred and no particular person deserves to be killed.”
HURIWA
faulted Buhari’s claim that security has improved and stated that this
statement reflects a government that is delusional and living in denial. The
Rights group said at no time since the fratricidal civil war has innocent blood
been shed as it has happened under the watch of President Buhari.
HURIWA
stated that as long as President retains the one sided heavy dominance of
Hausa/Fulani as heads of all strategic national security forces, the armed Fulani
killings will continue since Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association believe
that they can wipe out indigenous people and occupy their lands with the
protection of security forces therefore they will even escalate these violent
attacks.
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