The House of Representatives on
Wednesday invited President Muhammadu Buhari to appear before it to
explain the actions he had taken to halt killings in the country.
The House members, who debated the
incessant killings by herdsmen in Benue State and other parts of the
country, said the unending attacks had confirmed that Buhari’s
administration had “failed.”
The House asked the President to deploy
full military presence in Benue State “within 24 hours to smoke out
killer herdsmen for prosecution.”
It also resolved that the killer herdsmen should be declared as “terrorists.”
In addition, members agreed to shut down
legislative duties for three days in protest against the unending
killings in the country.
The motion to invite Buhari was moved by an All Progressives Congress member from Kano State, Mr. Bashir Baballe.
It was passed in a unanimous voice vote.
The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, presided over Wednesday’s session.
Baballe said, “We should summon Mr. President, he is the chief security officer of this country.
“What has Mr. President been doing to
address all these security challenges? We need to know. I move that we
should summon Mr. President.”
He was seconded by another APC member from Yobe State, Mr. Goni Bukar, before the prayer was passed by members.
The lawmakers came to the conclusion
after information got to them that 22 more persons had again been
massacred in Benue State by herdsmen in Guma and Daudu communities on
Wednesday.
This was barely 24 hours after 19
worshippers, including two Catholic priests, were gunned down during an
early morning funeral Mass in the Ayar Mbalom, Gwer-East Local
Government Area of the state on Tuesday.
A torrent of condemnation followed a
motion on urgent public importance moved by a member from Benue State,
Mr. Mark Terseer-Gbillah, to bring to the attention of the House, an
earlier attack on Nakka by soldiers on April 19.
Terseer-Gbillah, a member of the APC,
recalled how the soldiers torched houses and killed two villagers to
avenge the death of a soldier, believed to have been murdered by unknown
persons in the area.
He informed the House that while the
people of Benue had yet to come to terms with the incident, the killing
of the priests and 17 worshippers occurred.
Terseer-Gbillah added that just before
he came for the Wednesday’s session, he got fresh reports that 22 more
villagers had been killed.
“Mr. Speaker, as we speak, what we heard is that another 22 lives have been taken this morning in Daudu, Guma.
“It will appear that war has been declared on Benue State, he added.
The member representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency, Mr. Dickson Takighir, also spoke on the latest killing.
“Mr. Speaker, they have killed 22
persons again this morning in Guma. It is most unfortunate that this is
happening to us in this country,” he said.
Nearly all the speakers on Wednesday
concluded that the Buhari administration had failed to secure the lives
and property of Nigerians from the rampaging herdsmen.
A member from Kaduna State, Mr. Hassan
Shekarau, pointed out that many states in the country were “under siege”
from herdsmen and bandits.
He named Taraba, Benue, Kwara, Plateau, Kaduna, Zamfara, Kogi and Nasarawa as some of the states under siege.
“The government of the day has failed us. Today, the road to Birnin Gwari has been closed due to insecurity,” Shekarau stated.
A Peoples Democratic Party member from
Kogi State, Mr. Karimi Sunday, observed that a government that was
incapable of safeguarding the lives of citizens had lost its relevance.
“You will agree with me that the
government has failed in upholding Section 14(2) of the 1999
Constitution (as amended), where it says that the security and welfare
of the state is the primary responsibility of government.
“What we see every day is bloodletting
and killings. We cannot continue this way. Mr. President has failed and
there is anarchy all over the land,” he added.
A similar position was canvassed by an APC member from Borno State, Mr. Mohammed Sheriff.
He said, “The killings are alarming and the killers should be treated as terrorists.”
The Chairman, House Committee on Human
Rights, Mr. Edward Pwajok, SAN, expressed fears over the religious
dimension the attacks by the herdsmen had taken in Benue State.
Pwajok, an APC member from Plateau
State, noted that attacking Catholic priests was a dimension that “may
consume all of us if we continue to sit, watch and do nothing.”
The Chairman, House Committee on
Rules/Business, Mr. Orker Jev, and another PDP member, Mr. Henry Ofongo,
recalled how the Federal Government wasted no time in declaring members
of the Indigenous People of Biafra as terrorists.
Ofongo stated, “It is so sad that life
means nothing to this administration. IPOB members, who did not kill
innocent citizens, were declared as terrorists.
“Why is it difficult for President Buhari to declare the herdsmen as terrorists and treat them the way terrorists are treated?”
The Chairman, House Committee on Media
and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, said the House earlier
summoned the service chiefs, but saw that the killings escalated after
the service chiefs left the National Assembly.
“So, we have invited Mr. President
himself to hear from him. It would appear that some of his security
chiefs are not carrying out his orders.
“The invitation is meant to hear from
Mr. President, first-hand, what he is doing about the security situation
of our country,” Namdas added.
Nigerians knock President, CAN orders protests
The killing of two Catholic priests and
17 other worshippers in Benue State on Tuesday attracted more
condemnations on Wednesday with the Christian Association of Nigeria
directing its members to organise protests on their church premises on
Sunday.
Besides CAN, some individuals and groups
accused Buhari’s administration and security agencies of not doing
enough to stop the killings by herdsmen.
CAN President, Rev. Olasupo Ayokunle, in
a statement on Wednesday, urged Christians to hold peaceful protests on
their church premises on Sunday, April 29, 2018.
He said, “CAN urges Christians in
Nigeria to hold peaceful protests on the set aside date, on the premises
of their churches, asking the Federal Government and the security
agencies to stop the unending killings and bloodshed in the country.
“Christians are to carry placards with
inscriptions meant to address issues about killings, attacks and
destruction of their property in Nigeria.
“The inscriptions on placards could
read, ‘Enough of bloodshed in Nigeria,’ ‘Enough of unlawful killings in
the country,’ ‘FG, Release Leah Sharibu from the bondage,’ ‘FG, Stop
Herdsmen Killings,’ ‘CAN rejects FG’s poor handling of insecurity.’”
The cleric admonished the government to
perform its constitutional responsibility of protecting the citizens,
noting that no excuse was tenable for the bloodshed.
“CAN uses this medium to appeal to the
government of President Muhammadu Buhari to mount different effective
plans aimed at disarming herdsmen across the country in national
interest,” the statement added.
He also called on the heads of security agencies to wake up to their constitutional role of protecting lives and property.
A civil society organisation, Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria said Buhari’s administration kept
watching helplessly as the herdsmen killed Nigerians.
HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel
Onwubiko, in a statement on Wednesday, said the international community
must not watch Nigeria as “these crimes of epic proportions by armed
Fulani herdsmen are going on.”
Jihad declared on Northern Christians – CAN Youth
The National President of Youth Wing of
Christian Association of Nigeria, Mr. Daniel Kadzai, on Wednesday said
the killings were a declaration of Jihad as they had been occurring in
the Christian-dominated communities in the North, particularly in Benue
and Taraba states.
Kadzai, in an interview with journalists on Wednesday said the government was aware of the alleged perpetrators of the killings.
He said, “The Inspector-General of
Police, Ibrahim Idris, said that it is a farmer-herdsmen clash. The
Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, said it is due to the blockage of
cattle routes. President Buhari told his foreign host that it is
fighters from Libya that are carrying out the genocide against Nigerian
Christians.
“The questions are: if they are fighters
from Libya, why is the President not declaring them terrorists? The
different narrations of the security chiefs on the killings are clear
testimonies that this government is shielding the jihadists,” he said.
Also, the Spiritual Father and Chairman,
Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church World Wide, (Ayo ni o), Most
Rev. Samuel Abidoye, urged the President to secure lives and property
in Nigeria.
In an interview with The PUNCH, Abidoye said, “Buhari should ensure that security is restored in the country.”
Set up panel, ACF tells govt
The pan-northern group, the Arewa
Consultative Forum, has advised the Federal Government to set up a panel
of inquiry into the incessant killings in the northern part of the
country.
The ACF, in a statement by its National Publicity Security, Alhaji Muhammad Biu, described the killing in Benue as most callous.
It said that the perpetrators of the heinous act must be fished out and brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others.
The forum said, “The ACF urges the
Federal Government to set up a panel of inquiry into these incessant
killings with the hope that amicable solution would be found for common
good.”
‘Nigeria drifting towards anarchy’
The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose, said on Wednesday that Nigeria was drifting towards a state of
anarchy and called on the international community to intervene and
rescue the country from turning into a war zone.
The governor said the killing of 17
worshippers and two priests in Benue State; the President’s withdrawal
of $496m from the Excess Crude Account without approval of the National
Assembly and the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye were indications that all
was not well.
In a statement Fayose said, “If half of
the level aggressiveness being shown by the police on the arrest of
Senator Dino Melaye because of seeming concocted allegations is shown on
the killings by herdsmen in the country, the rampaging killer herdsmen
would have been brought under control…
“When did Nigeria degenerate to the
level that people can no longer worship peacefully in their churches or
go to their farms? When did Nigeria become a state of anomie where
people are killed even after raising the alarm that there was threat to
their existence?”
On the illegal withdrawal of $496m from
the Excess Crude Account, Fayose said, “One day, this Federal Government
will even stop releasing statutory allocations to states and local
councils.”
Nigeria sliding dangerously – Secondus, PDP
The National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, and the party also advised the
President to halt the “senseless killings in the country” before they
degenerated into a national crisis.
Secondus in a condolence message to the
Benue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, said, “From whichever angle you
are witnessing what is happening in this country, one thing is
agreeable: that this country is sliding dangerously.
“Nigerians and the global community have
continued to watch as all the tenets of democracy are being eroded for
dictatorial tendencies.”
He alerted the nation and the
international community to what he described as the choreographed
tension in the land being designed by the APC administration to abuse
democratic process and the rule of law ahead of the 2019 general
election.
He said, “I find it inexplicable that some group of gunmen should hold a state to ransom.”
Also, the PDP in a statement by its
National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said the Tuesday
Benue killing was sacrilegious.
He said that the former ruling party was
also worried about the unabated killings in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa,
Kogi, Zamfara, Plateau, Borno, Adamawa and other parts of the country.
On its part, the Muslim Rights Concern,
in a statement by its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, urged the police
to bring those responsible for the Benue killing to book.
A retired Commissioner of Police, Emeka Ojukwu, said security agencies had not done enough to curb the killings by the herdsmen.
Also, the Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society on
Wednesday called for the punishment of those responsible for killings
in the country within the ambit of the law.
NASFAT President, Kamil Bolarinwa, in a
statement, said the killings were a drawback to the success recorded in
the fight against Boko Haram members.
“Anyone who breaks the law should be
dealt with within the ambit of the law, regardless of his race, tribe or
religion,” he added.
We’ll end the killings, says Army
An entourage of the Nigerian Army, led
by the General Officer Commanding, 82 Division, Maj. Gen. Adamu
Abubakar, visited Naka on Wednesday, assuring the residents that the
army would end the killings and protect their lives and property.
The GOC in a statement added, “I am in
the state on the instructions of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur
Buratai, to interact with the field commanders and other heads of
security agencies in Benue State with the aim of getting further
credible situation report on the rising security challenges in the state
with a view to checkmating the problems. I wish to inform you that I am
visiting Naka village where there was reported security breach.”
No comments:
Post a Comment