A civil rights and advocacy
group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has faulted the
apologies tendered by the Miyetti Allah over the killing of Benue State
farmers.
Recall that the
Fulani Socio-cultural organization, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, on Saturday
apologized to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State over herdsmen attacks and
killings in the state.
National Secretary of the
association, Engr. Saleh Alhassan made the apology during a peace initiative
brokered by the Chairman of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyeama, On Saturday.
Alhassan expressed regrets over
the Benue killings and pledged to ensure peaceful coexistence between herdsmen
and farmers moving forward.
Reacting in a statement by its
National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onuwbiko, the rights group charged President
Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to declare Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners
Association as a terrorist group for actively supporting the mass killings by
armed Fulani herdsmen across Nigeria.
The statement reads, “Nigeria is
a country of laws and not that of the whims and caprices of those in the
corridors of political powers which translate to the need for all persons and
authorities to be guided by and abide by the provisions of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria to avoid anarchy and doom.
“The President must respect his
oath of office by making sure that the tribal and religious affiliations he
shares with the suspected armed Fulani bandits do not stop him from decisively
abiding by the Constitution of Nigeria by bringing the full weight of the law
to bear on the mass killers. Armed Fulani herdsmen are treated as sacred cows
and this tendency is unlawful and unconstitutional.
“HURIWA wonders why Chief Allen
Onyemma is playing to the political gallery by trying to ingratiate himself to
the Presidency of Muhammadu Buhari who has consistently resisted the
groundswell of clarion calls from diverse sections of Nigerians that the
Federal government ought to have declared MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE OWNERS
ASSOCIATION as a terrorist group for their blanket endorsement of the attacks
on communities all across the Central Nigerian cities and villages by armed
Fulani herdsmen and bandits.
“HURIWA insists that the
organization of Cattle sellers known as MIYEYTI ALLAH is guilty of crimes
against humanity by association because it officially and tacitly gave support
for the killings in parts of Jos as well as other killings in parts of Kaduna
and Taraba states.
“HURIWA has asked the federal
government to declare Miyetti Allah CATTLE owners Association as a terror
organisation rather than the ill intentioned decision by President Muhammadu
Buhari in declaring the Indigenous peoples of BIAFRA (IPOB) and the Islamic
Movement of Nigeria lately as terrorist groups just for peacefully and
constructively canvassing self determination and for the release from illegal
detention of their religious leader and his wife in the case of the Islamic
Movement of Nigeria.
“May we ask Mr. busy-body Chief
Allen Onyemma and the Benue State governor Mr. Samuel Orton if the apologies by
the Miyetti Allah CATTLE owners Association will wake up those gruesomely
slaughtered from the land of the dead and if the hundreds of citizens and
innocent people slaughtered by armed Fulani herdsmen including worshippers and
Catholic Priests will die just like chickens and their killers move around the
corridors of power and are not brought to justice?
“This is like dancing naked on
top of the graveside of the hundreds of victims of the needless and unwarranted
attacks in Benue State and many other states including the home state of Chief
Allen Onyemma which is Anambra and other Igbo states like Ebonyi and Enugu
whereby armed Fulani herdsmen unleashed violence and raped women and girls with
reckless abandon and not one suspect has been arrested and jailed for these
crimes against humanity.
“HURIWA wants Chief Onyema who
emphasised the need for peaceful coexistence between farmers and herders in Benue
State and disclosed that he personally brought Miyetti Allah CATTLE owners
Association to broker peace between the Miyetti Allah and the people of the
state to tell Nigerians what becomes of the thousands of orphans, widows and
widowers thrown into mourning by these coordinated violence of armed Fulani
herdsmen now that he is arranging the so-called peace and reconciliation
amongst the parties of killers and the innocent victims and on which terms of
settlements? Is it that the Constitution which clearly outlaws mass killings in
Section 33(1) and section 6 which confers judicial powers of the Federation are
to be rubbished on the altar of political opportunism?”.
It asked the Federal government
to arrest, prosecute and sanction legally all the armed Fulani herdsmen that
were responsible for the spate of vicious circle of violence that led to the
unlawful killing of over 6,000 innocent farmers and other citizens and the
burning of many communities.
HURIWA also tasked the government
to rebuild the livelihoods and housing assets lost in all the attacks by armed
Fulani herdsmen.
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