Pro-Democracy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to categorise marauding armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorists.
The group expressed confidence that such categorisation would reduce, if not bring to an end, the incessant terror attacks on farming communities by armed Fulani herdsmen.
HURIWA said this in a statement it issued in Abuja on Sunday. The statement which was jointly signed by the National Coordinator, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, read, “The first reasonable step was for the President to direct his Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, to file an application before the Federal High Court Abuja division to procure the legal banning of armed herdsmen and their activities and to declare them as terrorists so as to put an end to the persistent massacre of unarmed farmers and other innocent members of the public living peacefully in their respective communities across the country.”
It urged the President to be concerned about things that could advance human progress and create mutual harmony amongst the divergent ethno-religious affiliations in Nigeria.
The human rights group accused the administration of “conspiratorial silence,” describing it is a very troubling security challenge threatening national cohesion and endangering national security.
It noted that several global bodies had already categorised armed Fulani herdsmen as one of the most deadly terrorist organisations in the world next to Boko Haram in terms of ferocity and degree of mass casualties of citizens from their many bloody violence unleashed on communities across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The group wondered why President Muhammadu Buhari still didn’t think these armed Fulani herdsmen were as deadly as terrorists.
HURIWA recalled that in the last two years, armed Fulani herdsmen precipitated the killings of over 8000 innocent civilians and the dispossession of farming communities in places like Southern Kaduna and Benue states.
The statement read in part, “These armed Fulani herdsmen operate like a well-funded and well-coordinated platforms because whenever any attack attributable to them occurs, they quickly demobilise and disappear into thin air even as it seems that there are some levels of collaborative partnership between them and commanders of security forces across the country.
“After thorough consideration of the high levels of destruction of lives and property of Nigerians from all parts of the country, perpetrated by armed Fulani herdsmen, we believe that the best solution to these incessant invasions and attacks is for President Muhammadu Buhari to step up his approach and worldview of the seriousness of these trends and take concrete legal, security and logistical steps to militarily put an end to the persistent genocide by armed Fulani herdsmen by first and foremost declaring armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorists.”
Punch
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