THE former President of Aka Ikenga, an Igbo Socio-cultural group, Goddy Uwazuruike, has commended the Northern Governors Forum, NGF, for expressing their support for the arrest and prosecution of ‘criminal herdsmen’.

“I think that is a tongue in the cheek. One day, they say arrest criminal herdsmen, another day they say you cannot evict anybody. For the records, nobody has said they are evicting herdsmen. What they are saying is that herdsmen should be law-abiding.

“But herdsmen are not law-abiding when they lead their cattle to destroy people’s farms or when they attack communities and kill people. As it is today in Nigeria, we have the settled Fulani, who is in power and we have the lawless wandering Fulani herdsmen from all over West Africa and we have the criminal gangs. I’m sure they have read the statement of Sheikh Abubakar Gumi after he visited the camps in Zamfara and met with the Fulani.

“Many of those people are not bandits, but insurgents and for a high ranking man in the calibre of Gumi to address them as insurgents means a lot. Sheikh Gumi contradicted those governors and I feel ashamed to read what some of them say. Governor Nasir el’Rufai of Kaduna State seems to forget that Southern Kaduna is a graveyard. So, whatever he is preaching to the country, he should first practice in Southern Kaduna. Coming out to challenge the Southern governors is senseless. The Constitution is quite clear that the governor is in charge of the land. The state laws recognise the creation of Forest Reserves for specific purposes, so if you use the Forest Reserve for a purpose not intended by law, the governor can call you to order any day,” Uwazurike said in an exclusive interview with Realnews.

On the allegation by the NGF that their people in Southern Nigeria are being attacked, Uwazuruike said that they should know that war has no exclusive boundary. However, he said that, nobody was attacking Fulani people in Southern Nigeria.

“When the Fulani were busy killing people, what happened? People have the right to defend themselves, so says Governors Darius Ishaku and Samuel Ortom of Taraba and Benue states respectively. In Plateau State, people are being killed and the governor does not know whether to go with the people or go with the killers, nobody is attacking Fulani people. Should people who are not members of the armed forces be seen carrying assault rifles? Has any Fulani ever been arrested for illegal possession of assault rifle? Definitely no! Rather, what happens is that when they see Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, shaking their fist, they will clamp down on them with heavy weapons.

Speaking on the ban of open grazing in the eastern zone by the South-East governors, Uwazuruike said that the law had always been there! Though the willingness to implement it, has been the problem.

“The governors don’t need to wait until they get a nod from the Buhari government before they implement the law. If you report in any police station that Fulani herdsmen are attacking and killing people, no policeman will dare to investigate the case. The Fulani people are a law unto themselves; they carry assault weapons openly and you expect a policeman carrying a MAC 4 to go and confront a Fulani herdsman carrying an AK 47. Our governors need to stand up for the people. We have to emphasize and scream it that there is a law banning open grazing. It is when you are consistent that people will take you seriously. In Ondo and Oyo states today, we know how serious it is. We need to have people rising as champions that nobody will tolerate open grazing.”

On the matter of regional security outfit and the Eastern Security Network, ESN, floated by IPOB, the lawyer and ex-president of Aka Ikenga said: “When you call the police and the police will not do anything, you have to look for an alternative solution. If the people are now looking in the opposite direction for the solution, why do you blame them? As it is today, our governors are not standing up for the people.

Those in the North East owe allegiance to Boko Haram, those in Zamfara, according to Sheikh Gumi, owe allegiance to the Fulani people; they live comfortably with these people because the state authority has failed. In the South East, nobody is fighting the marauding herdsmen of kidnappers. Each time a victim is freed, he gives a detailed account of what happened and how they had to transfer money sometimes by phone. In other words, the police have all they need. They should go to the bank, trace where the money is, including the operator and then you can arrest him. Those kidnappers, I have always insisted have sponsors or what you may call godfathers.”

On the status of ESN, which is a creation of IPOB and which is proscribed and classified a terrorist organisation by the court, Uwazuruike said: “The Federal Government has this fear of IPOB and they have done more to neutralise IPOB than they have for Boko Haram. In the Federal Government’s thinking, IPOB is more dangerous than Boko Haram though IPOB does not carry weapons. Boko Haram carry weapons, the kidnappers carry weapons, IPOB carries nothing, yet they descend on them. Believe you me, people will always look to where they find protection.”

Speaking on the 2023 polls, Uwazuruike believes that the South East can produce the president in 2023 and called for a similar opportunity, which was given to the South West and the North in recent past.

“I have always said that if we want a president from the South East, we have to do what is necessary and that is to first belong to a political party; secondly, try to mobilise people, and thirdly, when candidates are being presented, you present yourself. We from the South East will always support it. If the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will give us the ticket as was done in 1999 and 2007 when two Yoruba, Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae, and Muhammadu Buhari and Umaru Yar’Adua respectively contested. There is nothing wrong with doing that for the South East.”

According to Uwazuruike, the presidency should rotate among the key zones of the country. One of the zones is the South East. “So if the presidency is coming to the South East, it must be the South East. When it goes to the South-South a second time, any Igbo in the South-South is free to come out, there should be no ambiguity in that,” he added.

-Feb,15, 2021 @ 11:57