Politics
PROMINENT civil Rights Advocacy Group, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has suggested to the incoming federal administration to prioritise the practical and fool-proof disarming of the well armed Fulani insurgents who are waging war against farming communities.
HURIWA has also told the President elect Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the quantum of military grade weapons in the possession of Fulani herdsmen in the different forests spread across the Country, can be used to threaten the stability of his administration and to blackmail his administration intermittently, just as HURIWA said the best approach for the next government to free itself from the gangsterism and terrorism of armed Fulani herdsmen, is to forensically disarm them and prosecute their known sponsors in the current Central government.
“For lasting peace to reign, for national stability and national security, the incoming president must take transparent, open, comprehensive and speedy steps to crush the ongoing Fulani insurgency and armed rebellion all across Nigeria including the arrest, prosecution and punishment of highly placed government and military officials behind the arming, re-arming and procurement of military grade weapons being deployed by Fulani herdsmen to take over communities. HURIWA stated that indigenous Christian communities of Southern Kaduna and Tiv speaking communities of Benue State, have lost their native farms to armed Fulani invaders.
In a media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA stated that the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, incubated, motivated, and tolerated the growing army of Fulani herdsmen who have constituted the second largest threat to Nigeria’s national security since 2015 and are responsible for the massacre of over 10,000 farmers all across Nigeria. HURIWA said armed Fulani terrorists also made kidnappings for cash payments to become huge franchises in Nigeria which the incoming administration must dislodge without further ado.
Besides, HURIWA listed the government of Kaduna State as one of the few state governments including Bauchi-state governor as persons who have defended the right of Fulani herdsmen to bear arms. HURIWA said armed Fulani herdsmen have continued to kill including the killing of an ECWA Pastors and 38 other Christians in Nasarawa State only this weekend.
Specifically, at the weekend, at least 38 residents of Takalafia and Gwanja communities in the Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State were killed by herdsmen who stormed the area recently.
HURIWA recalled that the Pastor-in-charge of the Evangelical Church Winning All in the area, Rev. Daniel Danbeki, and 37 others were gruesomely murdered by the assailants during the attack which lasted from 9 pm on Thursday night till the early hours of Friday.
However, a mass burial was held on Saturday for the victims of the attack which included women and children.
The deputy governor of the state, Emmanuel Akabe, led a government delegation to the mass burial which was conducted amid tears from sympathisers and other members of the communities.
HURIWA recalled that speaking during the mass burial, Akabe condemned the wanton killings and destruction of property worth millions of naira.
He expressed shock over the killings and assured that the state government will investigate the cause of the attacks and bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to book, adding that relief materials will be provided for displaced people in the area.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman of Karu LGA, James Thomas, who visited the attacked communities before the mass burial, completely condemned the attack by the herdsmen.
HURIWA reminded the President elect of the existence of empirical evidence of the existence high profile sponsors of the Fulani herdsmen inside of the topmost echelons of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration just as Fulani herdsmen have claimed that the government supplies them with weapons.
HURIWA recalled that in a viral video recorded during one of the several meetings between popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, one of the herdsmen, addressing the crowd, pointed out that cows don’t give birth to guns.
He said that they were only herdsmen and did not know what guns were until the government started supplying them with AK-47.
“I swear to the Almighty Allah that it’s the government that is giving arms to us. Fulani don’t know what gun is,” he said in Fulani to the applause of others.
“We are only herdsmen. Cows don’t give birth to guns. I swear to Allah, we are on our own and the government supplies AK47 to us. I am not afraid to say the truth.”
HURIWA condemned President Muhammadu Buhari for doing practically nothing to check the upsurge and the widening spectre of deadly attacks launched by his Fulani kinsmen all across Nigeria.
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Tags: Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko HURIWA Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu
