Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called on the National Assembly to begin the impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari over his administration’s inability to stop incessant herdsmen killings.
A statement yesterday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, made the demand in reaction to latest killings in Plateau State.
HURIWA accused the presidency of allowing over 6,000 innocent people to be killed by armed herdsmen and that it had refused to declare the killer gangs terrorists.
The organisation said the recurring attacks on Christian farming communities in the North Central State of Plateau including the invasion of the University of Jos, Bauchi Road Hostel by military uniforms’ wearing herdsmen, shows that the various acts of coordinated attacks may have been planned over time.
The rights group stated that the serial killings of unarmed civilians while Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong saunters in and out of the Presidency in Abuja without displaying courageous leadership by raising objections to the willful failures of the Federal government, was enough reason for his impeachment as well.
HURIWA accused the Buhari government of shielding the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association “even when there are evidences beyond the shadows of empirical doubts to link this group to the activities of the armed killer gangs affiliated to armed Fulani herdsmen”.
HURIWA said: “The activities of the killer gangsters from the armed Fulani herdsmen supported by Miyetti Allah cattle owners Association and backed by the Presidency have become the greatest threat to the survival of constitutional democracy and the President has persistently breached the clear provisions of the grund norm which confers legitimacy to the position and title of President and commander-in-chief of armed forces of Nigeria which he holds in trust for the people of Nigeria.
“It goes without any contradiction that Muhammadu Buhari has lost all the constitutional legitimacy of the Presidency of Nigeria and is occupying that position extra-legally. He should be impeached.
“You can’t exercise constitutional legitimacy when your administration watches conspiratorially as the kinsmen of the holder of the current office of President watches and does nothing whereas thousands of Nigerians are despatched to the early graves and these killers are roaming freely and even addressing media conferences and appearing on prime time television news interviews.
“Buhari as far as the constitution is concerned has lost his legitimacy and is therefore not exercising his powers legitimately. The National Assembly must re-convene now and kickstart his removal from office or else the Country may snowball into a civil conflagration”.
HURIWA also urged the authority of the Nigerian military to stop the ongoing verbal exchanges against perceived elders of Plateau State and embark on surgical operations to degrade, decimate and destroy the armed Fulani killer gangs creating spectacular unrests in Plateau State and prosecute the sponsors such as the Miyetti Allah cattle owners Association.
It further called on the security forces to secure the lives of students and civilians just as it condemned the violence unleashed on the University of Jos by armed Fulani herdsmen.