Former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Canada, Professor Iyorwuese Hagher has called on the United Nations and the international community to come to the rescue of the Tiv people of north-central Nigeria.
Prof Hagher, accused the Nigerian Army of assisting the Fulani herdsmen to prosecute an ethnic cleansing agenda, saying only the United Nations can save the Tiv people.
The former Envoy in a statement on Tuesday, said the Federal Government has lost control of the security challenge in the country going by the increasing spate of attacks by the insurgents and lately, the Fulani militia.
Prof Hagher therefore, enjoined the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon to immediately set up a UN Peace keeping Force to protect the Tiv people so as to guide against violations of human rights and crimes against humanity; (including murder, rape and mutilation of dead bodies) committed against a defenceless civilian population.
He also called on the United States and Canada to take note that the Tiv ethnic cleansing agenda today, is more heinous and expansive in scope, than the horrendous Zaki-Biam massacres of hundreds of un-armed men, women and children by the Nigerian army in October 2001, which was roundly condemned by the International community.
The statement reads, “It is condemnable and reprehensible that large scale pre-colonial tribal wars have been reignited, fester and are being relentless re-waged in the 21st century in Nigeria.
“It is sad and disheartening that the Nigerian government and the world, is refusing to acknowledge the current systematic ethnic cleansing of the Tiv people, which has been on-going since 2011.
“The attack of Gbise town in Shitile, in Tiv homeland in Benue State, by an ethnic militia, aided by the Nigerian army, is a signal of an accelerating humanitarian disaster, already in motion and which needs must stop at once.
“The United Nations should help mitigate the effects of murder, rape and displacement of affected Tiv people.
The United Nations should, immediately set a United Nation’s peace keeping force to protect Tiv lives and avert the violations of human rights and crimes against humanity; (including murder, rape and mutilation of dead bodies) committed against a defenceless civilian population.
“The International community can no longer ignore the fate of over five million Tiv people marked for ethnic cleansing in the Benue valley to avoid the repeat of the unashamed world; passively watching the slaughter of the minority Tutsi population by the Hutu in 1994. The unfolding drama in Nigeria’s Benue valley is poised to make the Rwanda massacre of 1994, the Balkans of 1995 and the Kosofo of 1999 pale into insignificance.
“The time to act is now.”
