The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus of the House of Representatives has expressed deep shock over the barbaric killing of many people in Plateau State by herdsmen.
The caucus stated that it had become extremely worrisome that owing to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government’s unending rhetoric and deliberate ineffectiveness, criminality and free flow of human blood had continued across the nation.
In a statement issued by the House Deputy Minority Leader, Honourable Chukwuka Wilfred Onyema in Abuja yesterday, the PDP House Caucus also condemned the Presidential Villa security personnel’s Tuesday assault on a leader of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement (BBOG) and former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili who was on a solo march to the State House to demand for accountability and end· to the violent killings going on in the country.
According to the lawmakers, many Nigerians are perplexed that a government that had taken very urgent and comprehensive action to neutralize the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) which had not killed, currently finds its very difficult to tackle criminal herdsmen who have been attacking people in Benue, Zamfara, Taraba and other states.
“Following the gruesome killing of more than 100 persons and razing of some 50 houses, two· cars and 15 motorcycles by rampaging herdsmen who wantonly invaded Razat, Ruku, Nyarr, Kura and Gana-Ropp villages of Gashish District in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, the US Department of State joined its voice to that of numerous concerned Nigerians by expressing utter condemnation for such unjustified violence.
“For long, the APC government that came into power on the basis of now-unrealized promises of bringing back all the abducted Chibok girls had remained rather aloof from the cries and pains of many whose states and communities had been visited with pains, sorrow and death in the hands of rampaging and armed herdsmen.
“Activist lawyer, Femi Falana has expressed possibility of dragging the Federal Government and the Plateau State Government to the Special Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for condoning crimes against humanity and genocide while Amnesty International which notes that at least 1813 people have been murdered in 17 states in the country this year, asserts that government’s failure to hold murderers to account is encouraging them and fueling rising insecurity across the country.
“It is cause for concern that Oby Ezekwesili, the co-convener of the BBOG movement ran into trouble after she began a loud solo protest with her demands for action from the Presidency, as she asked for explanations that normally agitate the minds of many Nigerians.
“On a date that it had just been disclosed that Nigeria, under the APC government, has overtaken India in the democratization of poverty for 87 million citizens, including 11 million that lost their jobs within the last three years; Ezekwesili was asking the APC government to put an end to the endless· killings by herdsmen, stop its routine blame game and reveal the identity of the perpetrators of wanton· killings in Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Zamfara, Plateau, Nassarawa and Kogi states.
“Too many needless deaths are occurring and it is time for all to feel deeply concerned; we urge all Nigerians to join hands in special prayers for the repose of the souls of those killed as well as victory against those using political power to tactically justify the activities of killer herdsmen,” the PDP House Caucus stated.
Meanwhile, Passage of the age reduction law popularly known as #NotTooYoungToRun will not automatically pave way for young people to be elected into elective offices in Nigeria, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said.
Delivering a keynote address at a celebration conference organized by the #NotTooYoungToRun movement in Abuja yesterday, Hon Dogara, maintained that only by removing economic barriers that young people will be empowered enough to run for elective offices.
He stated that there can’t be a credible election in the midst of violence in the country and urged young people to unite and “keep the flame burning until we are able to put young people into leadership positions in Nigeria.”
The speaker who was at the forefront for the passage of the age reduction bill during the constitutional amendment exercise also advocated for the appointment of young people as ministers of states in the next administration.
Power, according to Dogara, is never given freely in any society and charged the youths to brace themselves to wrestle power through participation in politics.
he speaker also decried what he called “generational warfare” that has continued to work against youth inclusion in politics and governance in Nigeria and called on leaders at all levels to train and mentor young people who will lead the nation in the future.
“If we don’t train our youths we won’t have a future because young people are the future of our country”, he said.
He said Nigeria must channel the energies, talents and gifts buried in millions of it’s young people to productive activities in order to curtail the increasing spate of violence.
The speaker cautioned that Nigeria must win the war against violence so as to keep our civilization and lamented how public institutions and symbols of authorities have been totally destroyed in the North East region especially Borno and Yobe states which he said has taken the region back to “Stone Age.”
According to him, the current socio-economic and political atmosphere in the country will not allow more young people to run for elective offices unless deliberate windows are created for them to occupy positions.
Similarly, the immediate past Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank has reported the inability of the present government under President Muhammadu Buhari to stop what he called “ethnic cleansing and genocide in Nigeria” to the United Nations.
Frank said that the present administration lack political will to declare the alleged perpetrators of the increasing brutal attacks and gruesome killings on a daily basis in the country as terrorist group.
In an open letter addressed to the Secretary/General of the United Nations, António Guterres, through its office in Abuja, yesterday, the APC chieftain said Nigerians have lost confidence in the security outfits, especially the military, having allegedly shown complicity in the killings going on.
He, therefore, called on the United Nations and other world powers to make their own private findings as to what was going on in Nigeria as it relates to security matters, saying “if we don’t get intervention in good time, there may not be Nigeria in the nearest future.”
The letter titled: “A call for urgent intervention to stop ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Nigeria” read in part: “It has become imperative for me to once again bring to your attention the continuous mass murder of innocent Nigerians by Fulani Herdsmen without required mitigation from the present administration in the country.
“The tension between Fulani herdsmen and farming communities has existed for many years. However, there has been a dramatic upswing in recent time with increasing brutal attacks and gruesome killings on a daily basis.
“The impunity and brutality with which the assailants operate, without regard to law and sanctity of life, is both shocking and appalling.
“It is, however, surprising to note that the government of the day which was elected in an unprecedented public approval in 2015, has not deemed it necessary to summon the political will and courage to forge a lasting solution to the violence. The nation’s security is on a free float while Nigerians are being killed in their native communities where they have dwelled for ages.
“You are no doubt aware that Fulani herdsmen have been acknowledged by the global community as the fourth deadliest Terror Group in the world. ‘Fulani militants’ as they have come to be known are daily visiting deaths on innocent farmers who dare challenge them after their farms have been ravaged by cattle.
“For the singular reason that they want their cattle to graze on other people’s farmland, they kill and maim natives. Therefore, lives and property are perpetually endangered across the country as I write.
“Curiously however, the government of the day has refused to declare the group as a terrorist organization, as a way of bringing permanent closure to their bloodletting activities. Another worrisome dimension to this orgy of violence is the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has consistently defended them as a group that merely carry sticks and machetes.
“However, to the contrary, eyewitnesses report that the Fulani militants are usually armed with sophisticated weapons and often attack their victims when they are most vulnerable, such as midnights, church services and burial ceremonies. They have consistently visited and brutally killed predominantly Christian natives in the North-Central region including some parts of the South and North of the country.
“I dare say that the United Nations cannot stand aloof and watch human lives being wasted on such gargantuan scale as being witnessed daily in Nigeria, due largely to the failure of government to rise to the occasion and stem the tide; by doing the needful to safeguard the lives of its own people.
“I therefore, call on the United Nations and the G7 countries such as the United States of America, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom to come to Nigeria’s aid before it is too late. We as Nigerians have lost confidence in our security outfits, especially the military as they have shown complicity in the killings going on in Nigeria.
“Questions begging for answers are: Why have they not been able to prevent the attacks, make arrest and prosecute the killers? These attacks are being carried out for hours and no single suspect has been prosecuted?
“I, therefore, call on the United Nations and other world powers to make their own private findings as to what is going on in Nigeria as it relates to security matters. As it is, if we don’t get intervention in good time, there may not be Nigeria in the nearest future.”