Rights Group Demands End To Killing, Maiming Of Citizens

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo to bring to an end the constant killing, maiming of innocent citizens in the country.

This was contained in a statement made available to Journalists in Abuja on Monday, lamenting also that the governors of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El'Rufai and his counterpart Babagana Zulum of Borno State were paying kid-glove treatment to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners who they alledged were disrupting lives and properties in Nigeria.

According to the statement, the refusal by the federal government to declare the killer herdsmen and bandits as terrorists, rather than describing them as repentant and accorded protection was disappointing.

The statement questioned the rationale behind the presidential treatment to the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, demanding that they be named a terrorist group.

"Rather than declare them a terrorist group for backing the organised killings in Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and the Enugu States, they are accorded security round the clock, accepting them as repentant.

"HURIWA condemns the illegal position canvassed by Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Bormo the heartland of Boko haram terrorists that the so-called repentant Boko haram terrorists are truly repentant," the statement said.

"We ask the Borno State governor to cover his face in shame for defending terrorists whereas millions of the victims of the heart-rending terror campaigns since over a decade, whereas the state governor is cuddling mass murderers and terrorists and baptising them as repentant, 

"What then is the concept of government and the dispensation of justice including bringing killers to face the long arm of the law and for the victims to receive social justice and closure to their sufferings? We think this Federal government has been so unfair to the victims of terrorism in Nigeria," it added.

The group opined that 'the failed effort of the President is the continuous bombardments of Southern Kaduna by armed Fulani militia and the destruction and cessation of over 100 native farming communities belonging to Christian natives of Southern Kaduna State. 

It, therefore, called for a stop to the idea of implementing the unconstitutional programme of reintegration of terrorists saying that Nigeria, under President Mohammadu Buhari's administration looks like a Banana republic in the eyes of the international community. 

"Days back President Muhammadu Buhari visited Kafanchan the heart of Southern Kaduna State to commission a small road network leading to the Palace of the Fulani first class Emir of Jamaa Emirate but failed to meet the largely Christian dominated communities of Southern Kaduna State thereby creating the impression that the Federal Government is not concerned about the organised pogroms by armed Fulani terrorists against Christians in Southern Kaduna State.

"The office of the Vice President can't make any headway in the area of inter-ethnic and inter-religious peace and harmony in Southern Kaduna so far as President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nasir Elruffai who are both Fulanis are less concerned with arresting and prosecuting for mass murders the few armed Fulani terrorists unleashing bloody violence against Christian communities of Southern Kaduna," it added.