Don’t ban IPOB, Yoruba group without MACBAN, Fulani militia, HURIWA tells FG

Says FCT saturated with robbers, kidnappers

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has cautioned the Federal Government against proscribing the Yoruba Nation and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as terrorist groups while sparing Miyetti Allah and Fulani militia.

HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated in Abuja, yesterday, that on June 26, 2018, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) described the attacks on some communities in Plateau State as retaliation over the killing of 300 cows belonging to its members.

“The Federal Government led by Muhammadu Buhari is said to be considering all options against the Yoruba nation separatist group, including the proscription of the movement led by Prof. Banji Akintoye and Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a. Sunday Igboho),” HURIWA said, adding that it would amount to killing a fly with a sledgehammer.

It, therefore, cautioned against any move to proscribe the Yoruba Nation Group as a terrorist organisation, while groups like MACBAN that backs violent attacks of armed Fulani herdsmen and armed Fulani militia that kidnap pupils are spared.

In another vein, the prominent pro-democracy raised the alarm that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) “is saturated with armed robbers and armed kidnappers.”

It condemned the FCT police command and other security agencies that concentrate on residences of personalities instead of combating crimes in the nation’s capital.

Onwubiko regretted that residents of satellite towns like Kuje, Bwari and Gwagwalada were daily made to confront men of the underworld with little or no efforts on enforcement agencies within the FCT to combat the crimes and criminality.

He stated: “Around February this year, a retired Assistant Comptroller of Immigration, Abdullahi Rakieu, was kidnapped in Abuja alongside his wife, another member of the family, and one Olushola Agun.”

HURIWA called for total unbundling of the failed security architecture and the adoption of strategic approaches to crime-fighting. It suggested the revitalisation of the public versus government forum for the exchange of information and ideas on how to secure the FCT.