FG Should Stop Shielding Killer Herdsmen, HURIWA
Says
A pro-democracy group, Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has challenged the federal government to stop
shielding the rampaging Fulani herdsmen who have refused to desist from the
wanton killings of innocent Nigerians.
The National Coordinator of the group, Emmanuel
Onwubiko, who made this known in a statement today in Abuja also accused
the federal government of placing ethnic politics above national security
interest in the cases of mass killings by armed Fulani herdsmen.
According to him, "There is a well-funded
campaign by Northern governors and top federal government officials to seek
actively to change the narratives of the real identities of the killer Fulani
herdsmen who wreaking havoc across Nigeria."
The rights group wondered why the Minister of State
for Agriculture, Mr. Heineken Lokpobiri, appeared before a Senate Committee last
Monday and made sensationally untrue and unverifiable claims that the mass
killers who are armed Fulani herdsmen are foreigners.
Onwnbiko noted that: "The plot, if allowed to
continue, is capable of creating the impression that there's grand cover up on
the part of the federal government.
“It was an act of sabotage on the part of top
political office holders such as Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon
Arase, and Lokpobiri to affirm that the Fulani herdsmen killers were foreigners
even when there are overwhelming evidence based on documented accounts by
leaders of the Fulani herdsmen which points to the fact that indeed some of
those killings were premeditated acts of revenge for alleged cattle
rustlings."
HURIWA also accused the top government officials
who are shifting blame to foreigners for the incessant killings of playing to
the gallery to please their pay masters who are mostly Fulani by ethnic origin.
The group
stressed that this attempt to change the narrative to suite the whims and
caprices of the powers -that -be amounted to the breach of constitutional oath.
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