Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the statement of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), urging President Bola Tinubu to arrest and prosecute Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemi, popularly known as Sunday Igboho for treason.
Igboho had earlier stated that he returned to Nigeria to help eradicate killer herders in the deep forests of South West, attacking farmers and traditional rulers.
National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said in a statement, yesterday, that throughout the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari, the same association was known for backing actions of armed herders.
The rights group, which described MACBAN as a terrorists’ sympathiser, recalled that on June 26, 2018, the association backed terrorists, who massacred hundreds of Plateau State natives, when it described the attacks on Plateau communities as retaliation over the killing of 300 cows belonging to its members.
It, therefore, said it didn’t come to them as a surprise when MACBAN called for the arrest and prosecution of Igboho for threatening to wipe out terrorists masquerading as herders killing residents of South West.
Rather than commending the Yoruba Nation for volunteering to eliminate terrorists, it added, MACBAN was displaying its support for terrorists by calling for the arrest and prosecution of Igboho.
According to HURIWA, it is unambiguous that only those who sponsor terrorists would not be happy when someone decides to eradicate them.
HURIWA, however, described the position of MACBAN as preposterous, puerile, irrational and irresponsible, just as it fully backed Igboho and any patriotic group willing to wipe out terrorists of any dimension, even if they are herders, because of the atrocities the armed terrorist herders committed between 2015 and 2023.
It carpeted MACBAN for being clever-by-half by bringing in the name of Nnamdi Kanu in its unwise call for the arrest and prosecution of Igboho.
Onwubiko stated: “HURIWA is 100 per cent in support of any move by Sunday Igboho to eradicate armed herders from the entirety of South West, and we are demanding that the security forces allow volunteers in the South East to similarly comb the forests of South East and wipe out armed herders hibernating in the South East, going by the fact that the army recently supported Igboho’s remarks that he will take out all killer herders in the forests of South West.”
