HURIWA mulls petitioning world leaders, ICJ over killings by suspected herders

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) yesterday said it had resolved to petition world leaders and the International Criminal Court (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands to seek justice on the mass killings perpetrated by suspected armed herdsmen in Nigeria.

It said the correspondence would demand that the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) be investigated and the perpetrators tried for crimes against humanity.

HURIWA however expressed disappointment that the Nigerian-born President of International Criminal Court in, Chile Eboe-Osuji, “could not be trusted to give any kind of justice to the victims of the series of attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen.”

The rights group, in a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, said it was responding to the “recent threats by MACBAN against states that have refused to set up either the RUGA Fulani settlements or cow colonies.”

Also yesterday, Governor Samuel Ortom demanded for the prosecution of the president of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bodejo, for “persistently making statements capable of stirring crises in the country.”

Bodejo was quoted in some national dailies of threatening the governor and others for “refusing to establish cattle colonies also known as Ruga settlements in their states.”

In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Terve Akase Ortom said: “We have read with shock the statement in some dailies credited to the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bodejo.”

Also, the governor has sought the arrest and prosecution of killers of an engineer with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, (FRCN) Harvest FM Makurdi, Patrick Kumbul and another person shot at the weekend in Makurdi by unknown gunmen.