A Prominent Pro-Democracy and Non-Governmental organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) is worried that armed freelance killers and killer herdsmen are having field days across the Country killing, maiming and destroying precious lives and property of the citizens without the relevant armed security forces and the different levels of governments adopting fool-proof measures to bring these orgies of blood cuddling attacks to an end.
HURIWA expressed shock that at all levels of government, public office holders careless about the rampaging attacks and senseless killings of ordinary citizens by armed Fulani herdsmen and armed freelance killers probably because the Nigerian State spends a fortune at public expenses to provide all round security to the political class. The group said the current electioneering year may be bloody unless the Nigerian State and the various state governments adopts proactive approach to crime prevention and control.
HURIWA has therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors of the major flashpoints of these incessant attacks such as Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Kwara and Kogi states to brace up to the challenges of carrying out their primary constitutional duties of protecting lives and property of Nigerians and to provide succour to the victims and their families and ensure that the armed mass murderers of all dimensions are brought to effective justice.
Corollary, the Rights group said the refusal and/or failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari to outrightly proclaim armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorists is a violation of his constitutional oath of office not to allow his personal interest to interfere with the discharge of his Constitutional obligations to Nigerians of all affiliations just as the Rights group said the overwhelming public perception is that the rampaging armed Fulani herdsmen are allowed by the relevant armed security forces and even allegedly aided to carry out these carefully choreographed and coordinated pogroms of mostly Christian dominated communities in all parts of Nigeria in the guise of fighting for grazing rights only because President Muhammadu Buhari is not just a Fulani by Ethnicity but is said to be the National patron of the association of fulani herdsmen.
HURIWA through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf condemned the strange killings going on in the opposition led Rivers State in circumstances that can at best be described as shrouded in high wire plots from external forces to instigate a state of unrests in order to justify the calls by some agents of darkness for emergency declaration to crumble the only strategic state headed by an opposition party governor Mr Nyesom Wike.
HURIWA condemned the clear display of partisanship by the officers and operatives of the much criticised Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Rivers State just as it has asked the National Assembly to investigate all the violence and mass murders that have occurred all across Nigeria carried out by the Nigerian Police Force and SARS to be specific including the recent killings of some youngsters in Cross Rivers State who allegedly had minor disagreement with the Cross Rivers Commissioner for Agriculture.
HURIWA said it supports the call for a judicial commission headed by a reputable serving Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to investigate the widespread misconducts of Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigerian Police Force and the multiple cases of extralegal executions of suspects by the SARS. “We will soon be sending a detailes wriitten submission asking for forensic examination of all the extralegal executions of civilians by SARS; NPF and other armed security forces. We have also concluded our report on the number and circumstances surrounding numerous attacks carried out by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen”.
HURIWA specifically condemned the gruesome killings that took place in the Christian dominated communities in Southern Kaduna State allegedly perpetrated by armed killer herdsmen during the Christmas celebrations resulting in dozens of casualties even as the Rights group condemned the January 1st premeditated murder of the traditional ruler, the Etum Numana, Mr. Gambo Makama, and his wife who were shot dead, with his palace and car set ablaze. The Rights group condemned the lack of intelligence driven operation by the armed security forces including the Nigerian Army that recently set up a station in Southern Kaduna State and specifically in Kafanchan.
HURIWA has called on the Kaduna state government and all other state governments where incessant terror attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen have happened to deploy modern technology including drones to track down plotters of violence and take them out before they strike.
HURIWA recalled that the assasinated trado-ruler’s son was, however, lucky as he survived the attack with gunshot injuries and is being treated at an undisclosed hospital.
HURIWA stated that the dastardly killings of the traditional ruler and his wife has brought to 10 the number of persons killed by unknown gunmen in Southern Kaduna in the last one week in what is generally believed to be attacks plotted, executed and masterminded by armed Fulani herdsmen battling their supposed host communities to overrun their lurch farmlands. “Federal government of Nigeria must stop these senseless killings which have gone on for far too long or resign from offices or be impeached”.
