Herdsmen mayhem is terrorism, ethnic cleansing, Fayose insists

Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, says the massacre in parts of the country was terrorism and ethnic cleansing.

In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor called on the Federal Government to put a permanent stop to the killings.

He berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other revered statesmen for keeping silent while thousands of Nigerians were being slaughtered in their prime.

Sympathising with the government and people of Benue State over last week’s killing of 59 people, Fayose advised President Buhari to take decisive steps in halting what he described as ‘an attempt to wipe the Agatu and Tiv people off the face of the earth.’

He said: “Just now, we heard the news of the herdsmen attacking the camp of mobile policemen, Mopol 13, in Benue, killing two officers by slitting their throats. Do you call people who could invade the camp of armed mobile policemen in a guerilla manner and overpower them mere herdsmen?

“Nigerians are gradually beginning to see these killings as a case of the hand of Esau, voice of Jacob. It is man’s inhumanity to man and clear cruelty.”

Fayose, who urged all men of good conscience to condemn government’s alleged nonchalant attitude to the issue, added: “What is happening in Benue and other states in the North Central is an issue that the President must have to take decisive steps. We never had killings like these under previous administrations. It is one killing too many.”

The governor maintained that no one could deny the fact that the herdsmen had become a nightmare to Nigerians.

He went on: “On the Global Terrorism Index, herdsmen operating in Nigeria and parts of the Central African Republic are the fourth deadliest known terrorist group.

“A group declared as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world as far back as 2015 cannot be handled with levity by the Federal Government as being done presently and the earlier the President Buhari is made to realisee that his main duty is to protect the lives of all Nigerians, the better.”