Buhari meets Ugwuanyi, orders probe of herdsmen’s violence
• President tells military, police to arrest killers
• Rights groups plan protest to Aso Rock
In an apparent move to douse nationwide anger and mounting criticism of his government’s alleged indifference to the menace, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday ordered the Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Abayomi Olonishakin and the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Ehigiator Arase, to arrest and prosecute all those involved in the killing of innocent people and destruction of villages across the country by heavily armed herdsmen.
Buhari also met last night with Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to receive further briefing on the invasion of some communities in Enugu State by suspected Fulani herdsmen that led to the massacre of about 50 people and destruction of property including churches.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President urged all Nigerians to remain calm and assured of his administration’s readiness to deploy all required personnel and resources to remove this new threat to the collective security of the nation.
According to the statement: “Following continuing reports of attacks by ‘herdsmen’ on communities across the country, particularly Monday’s attack on Ukpabi Nimbo in Enugu State, President Muhammadu Buhari assures all Nigerians, once again, of his administration’s continued commitment to ensuring the safety of lives and property in all parts of the country.
“Acting on the President’s directive, the Inspector-General of Police and heads of the nation’s other security agencies are already taking urgent steps to fully investigate the attacks, apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
“Ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons is now a priority on the Buhari Administration’s agenda for enhanced national security and the Armed Forces and Police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage.
“In keeping with the President’s directive, the Inspector-General of Police, the General Officer Commanding the 82nd Division of the Nigerian Army and the Director of the Department of State Security in Enugu State have visited Ukpabi Nimbo to personally oversee investigations into the attack on the community and ongoing efforts to apprehend the culprits.”
Buhari , represented by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, also reiterated the order yesterday at a public presentation of a book Who will Love my Country, authored by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu,.
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, had on Tuesday at a meeting in Akure condemned Lai Muhammed, for his alleged recent statement that the Federal Government was silently finding lasting solutions to the herdsmen’s carnage, accusing the Buhari- administration of indifference to the pains and agonies of the citizens.
This position was reiterated yesterday by the Publicity Secretary of the group, Yinka Odumakin while addressing journalists after a meeting at the residence of its leader, Pa. Reuben Fasoranti alongside other Yoruba leaders in the Ondo State capital.
Afenifere reminded the Federal Government that it has a duty to
protect the lives and properties of every citizen of Nigeria, accusing the Directorate of State Security Services of partisan roles in the crises rocking the peace of the nation.
Also a coalition of human rights groups has vowed to storm the Aso Rock in large numbers to show their grievances against the massacres and alleged insincerity of Buhari on the protection lives and property as stipulated in the
Constitution.
They urged President Buhari to resign if he could not end the killings and called on the governments at all levels to come to the aid of the affected people and families in order to ameliorate their suffering.
The coalition, led by Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, comprises the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Centre for Constitutional Rights and
Counter Corruption Crusader, Save Lagos Group (SLG), The Conscience
Mainstream (TCM), African Masses Voices for Survival (AMVS), Christian Youths for the Peoples’ Rights and Development (CYPRD), Islamic Movement for Muslims’ Rights (IMMR) and Divine Nigerians Liberators for Peoples’ Fundamental Rights (DNLPFR), among others.
And from Taraba State, came another solution that installation of paramount chiefs to oversee the affairs of the communities, which experienced such attacks, would go a long way in addressing the problem.
A petition written to Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, through the commissioner of Police, Shaba Alkali, by the affected communities, under the auspices of Ndola of Gola Area Development Association (NGADA), expressed optimism that normalcy would return to the areas as soon as a monarch was installed.
Signed by the coordinator of the communities, Rev. Joseph Nagombe and its chairman, Rev. David A. Gadda, they admonished the state government and the security agencies to urgently establish police outpost in the communities.
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has also expressed “strong worry that going by the seeming conspiratorial silence and clear case of orchestrated ineptitude and inaction by the Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari to the dare-devil activities and blood-cuddling violence of armed Fulani herdsmen, Nigeria may be dangerously nearing the precipice of civil war.”
The group also warned “law enforcement agencies and the Armed Forces to rein in their errant commanders and management level officers to stop deploying armed security operatives to work in cohort with suspected armed Fulani herdsmen to create anarchy and civil unrest across Nigeria.”
HURIWA recalled that “some top commanders within the Division One of the Nigeria Army without any express permission or authorisation from and by the office of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, had allegedly illegally deployed armed soldiers that invaded Awgu, an Enugu State community whereby 76 indigenous Igbo farmland owners were arrested and hauled into the Umuahia prison for allegedly resisting the plots and activities of some armed Fulani herdsmen to annex some of their ancestral farmlands for the purposes of illegal grazing of cattle.”
According to HURIWA, “the Nigerian armed security operatives acting in the most efficiently professional manners, should immediately dismantle and arrest the well-coordinated armed Fulani terrorists who are currently engaging in the criminal kidnap of prominent Nigerians for the purposes of extorting heavy ransoms.”
HURIWA particularly condemned as the “heights of provocation” the abduction in Ezeagu Local Council of Enugu State of a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Aniako Celestine, priest in charge of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Ukana, Udi Local CouncilArea who was kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen on his way from his home town, Ezeagu.
The group added: “The further aggravating news that Fulani herdsmen had also killed two sisters in Abbi, Uzo Uwani Local Government Area last month leaving 17 houses burnt is reprehensible and abominable. The President should implement transparent measures to disarm these armed Fulani marauders who are currently rampaging all across the rest of the Nigerian communities. The Federal Government of Nigeria headed by the Fulani indigene of Katsina State Muhammadu Buhari must act now to prevent civil war which may be occasioned by the unwarranted levels of destruction by armed Fulani herdsmen. “
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20 Comments
Interesting times, no? Fulanis coming to Enugu to massacre the villages. Who takes the blame? Tears!!!
Rev. Mbaka I no hear your voice again. Wetin happen are you getting wise from your earlier foolishness. This is the period your people expect you to call your paymasters to order
Thunder fire your mother toto. Why you no go protest. Impotent ediot
Is Wole Soyinka and falana dead? What about Tam David-west? They are not patriots, they have abandoned the masquerade they foisted on the country, they could well be hiding under their beds.
When people ought to be ordering the arrest and prosecution of culprits they are talking of probes – is it to those who do not know government? Probe means No Action and the arm-twisting of probe reports and blaming the person who carried the probe. There are Laws to deal with those who take laws into their hands and agencies to deal with the issues. Probes are a distraction from the truth.
Oby Ezekwesili where are you? you must organize protests to
Aso rock to protest the herdsmen slaughtering your own people! Or will there be no income from that? Now we
know you all are same.
Mumu, why cant you organise your own protest. You are a disgrace to your idiot mother. Oby has done her own go and do your own. imbecile
I wish your vagabond mother was cured of her lunacy only then would I have replied you simply by telling her she failed to bring you up properly.
It’s unfortunate, very unfortunate, can’t find words but the truth is that we foisted this incompetence on ourselves. Here lies the aftermath!
Quite interesting. The only action the president can take against this Boko Haram group is to order a probe. Is this directive really from Aso Rock, or did it come from the Sultan? This question has become quite pertinent, given the length of time it has taken Buhari to even acknowledge the magnitude of violence these fulanis have inflicted on the country. His inaction gave the impression he was waiting for directive from a higher authority.By Buhari’s long deafening silence on such an urgent national security issue, he has only given credence to the criticisms from the opposition party as well as their position on his competence, qualification, patriotism, physical and mental health. The signs are all glaringly clear. No amount of spins from Garba Shehu can change the facts. The country is heading down a perilous path.
By the time Buhari completes four years, all those beclouded by the change mantra would’ve realized they were sold a dummy. The world is moving forward, but power brokers in Nigeria chose to move backwards just to spite and remove one man from office. They will see the zenith of incompetence, indifference, cluelessness, nepotism, cronyism and clownish leadership. We have not seen anything yet!
Was there no herdsmen’s violence during the last administration. Why are you now trying to hang this squarely around Buhari’s neck just because he is Fulani. It is unfortunate how we personalize and ethnicize disasters in Nigeria. The killing is an abhorrent act the perpetrators should face the music and all effort should be geared at preventing a recurrence anywhere else. Those are the issues that should concern right thinking citizens , not bigotry or election hang-over.
You missed the point OscarRubio. Herdsmen killings happened during the last administration and the govt didn’t do much to stop it. APC harped on this and pledged to do better and was voted in by Nigerians on the basis of that and other phantom promises. Now, they are even worst than the last administration by not even showing empathy and making effort to arrest and punish murderers. Their preoccupation is on how to mass-kill unarmed agitators who had existed since the advent of democracy in 1999 and was ignored all through. The govt must be blamed because the primary responsibility of the govt is to secure lives and properties. Any govt that fails to do this because the previous ones did not, is as bad as the one it replaced and would face the same fate eventually. This govt so far has failed. This govt is grossly incompetent and is an error. It can’t do better but keep comparing itself with mediocrity.
Two things trouble me. One is that the IG is inept. He has showed it over and over. Two, some soldiers and some security men have a business in this matter. I cannot tell the type of business but we cannot look far. Who owns the cattle. Who buys those guns. If Buhari does not act fast, farmers and all may be forced to defend themselves. When that happens, war has come and the nation is gone. Buhari and inept IG, take note. Anyway, what i have read now on government action is re-assuring.
AK-47 being brandished by the ecomog fulani marauders is a superior firepower approved for the police. So how do you say he is inept? Internal security of Nigeria has gone beyond the police a long time ago. That is why we are in this state of anarchy occasioned by Boko Haram, Fulani bororo, Delta militants, Elzakizaki, Pipeline vandals, Cultists and even common area boys.
We already know the outcome of the probe. We would be told some people killed so many cows and the Fulanis were almost fully justified to have carried out their attacks.
Medicine after death. Shows how insensitive GMB is to issues of national security. How many Nigerians have been lost from Jos to Barkin Ladi to Bukuru to Ryom to Kuru to Keffi to Agatu to Akure to Aba to Ilaro to Oke-Ogun to Birnin Gwari to Katsina-Ala to Jalingo and now to Nimbo Nsukka. It is most unfortunate and a shame we have to wait this long before an executive intervention.
I agree with me 100%.
What baffles me is why the Police had to wait for Presidential orders to take action against armed Fulani marauders killing Nigeria & burning Villages one after another to confront them. That is the Lacuna in our administration we must address.
Chibok girls were kidnapped by boko haram bandits for months & no one did anything because Jonathan was indisposed or not up to his responsibility.
Now Fulani herdsmen marauders are killing Nigerian & burning our Villages, no one did anything because Buhari is too slow to realise that he had to say something.
My take is that Police who fail to protect Nigerians from attack should be held accountable.
We can not have Police fleeing from armed robbers, when Banks are being attacked or leaving Villagers to their faith when attack by Fulani herdsmen marauders ETC.
why arresting and prosecuting? why not crush them like the pipelines vandals? which is more important, the human lives or pipelines? Nigerians are yet to see the ‘I belong to nobody, I belong to every body’ slogan of mr. president. Its a shame!
Looolz… This demagogue fellow won’t stop showing his ineptitudeness. Probe? After how many months? After how many attacks? After how many deaths? Cow
We will review and take appropriate action.