Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has noted that following persistent and unprecedented cocktails of coordinated genocides targeting Christians in Southern Kaduna in Kaduna State of Nigeria by armed Fulani terrorists,  the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has been told that his 2019 initiative to bring to an end the killings has failed flat on the ground.

HURIWA noted in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, that the failure of the Osinbajo initiative was as a result of “consistent inconsistencies on the part of the Federal Government in which Profesdor Osinbajo is number two.”  

HURIWA then questioned the rationale for government to give Presidential treatment to the aggressor-in-chief, Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, whereas the group should have for long been declared a terrorist group for backing the organised killings in Southern Kaduna,  Plateau, Benue and Enugu States.

HURIWA alleged that “the National leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners groups are being given high profile security cover and protected 24/7  by operatives of the armed forces of Nigeria paid by the tax payers.”

Similarly, HURIWA condemned what it described as “the illegal position canvassed by Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Bormo State, the heartland of Boko Haram terrorists, that the so-called repentant Boko Haram terrorists are truly repentant.”

This is just as HURIWA asked the Borno State governor to cover “his face in shame for defending terrorists whereas the millions of the victims of the heart rending terror campaigns since over a decade are scattered all over the world as refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, whereas the state governor is cuddling mass murderers and terrorists and baptising them as repentant.”

HURIWA therfore queried, “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?

“HURIWA thinks this Federal government has been so unfair to the victims of terrorism in Nigeria.”

HURIWA has therefore called on the Federal Government “to perish the idea of implementing the unconstitutional programme of reintegration of terrorists because it is rubbishing the essence, significance and the place of the Grund Norm in the society and has made Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari look like a Banana republic in the eyes of the international community.”

HURIWA recalled, with lamentations, that in the year 2019, just before the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for the second and non-renewable constitutional tenure of office,   the Vice President initiated what he called a peace meeting with so-called warring parties to end the lingering bloody conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in Kaduna State.

HURIWA also recalled that those at the train-the-trainer workshop organised by the Vice President’s office include leaders of Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), representatives of traditional rulers and community leaders.

The organization noted that the training programme was funded by the Open Society Initiative For West Africa (OSIWA).

HURIWA further recalled that while addressing the participants, Rule Advisor to the Vice President, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi had in 2019 said farmer-herders crisis has become one of Nigeria’s gravest security challenges in recent times, pointing out that the Federal Government has extended more energy for the resolution of the crisis.

HURIWA recalled the exact wordings of the Vice President thus: “Although the crisis has existed for decades, it worsened in 2014 resulting to many deaths. Many of us know that farmers and pastoralists have had a long history of harmonious relationship.”

HURIWA maintained that the Vice President, through Waziri-Azi, however, pointed out that peaceful coexistence has since been disrupted because of what is happening around the country.

“She explained that it was against this background that the Federal Government unveiled a 10-year National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) from 2018 to 2027 as part of strategy to tackle crises in Zamfara, Kaduna, Benue, Maraba Plateau, Adamawa and Nasarawa states”, the human rights body further recalled.

According to the organisation, Waziri-Azi had added that government’s plan to address the conflict among the warring groups was built around several pillars, saying: “The plan is encompassing and is designed to support government at all levels. It addresses peace and security, transformation and national growth and there are various entry points for all stakeholders to participate.”

HURIWA in the media statement on Sunday insisted that the Vice President and his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, “are insincere and very cosmetic in their approaches towards finding the systematically legal based solutions to the one sided terrorism against Christian farmers by armed Fulani terrorists.”

The Rights group then reasoned that “the clear evidence of the failed effort of the Vice President and President Muhammadu Buhari is the continuous bombardments of Southern Kaduna State by armed Fulani militia and the destruction and cessation of over 100 native farming communities belonging to Christian natives of Southern KadunaState.”

HURIWA added that “virtually all local government areas making up Southrrn Kaduna are still being attacked and the natives killed, maimed and their properties destroyed or taken over by the aggressors who are Fulani.”   

Consequently, HURIWA vehemently “condemned the fact that few days back President Muhammadu Buhari paid a state visit to Kaduna State and went to Kafanchan the heart of Southern Kaduna State just to commission 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 which intensified since 2015 that Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani indigene of neighbouring Katsina State, and his kinsmen Nasir El-Rufai came to power as President and commander in chief and governor of Kaduna State respectively.”   

For HURIWA, “it is impossible for the office of the Vice President to 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 El-Ruffai, 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.”

The Rights group observed that “the 2016 claim reported in the media of the admission by Governor El-Rufai that he paid money to some foreign Fulani terrorists to stop Killing in Southern Kaduna shows that government is aware of the source of the terrorism, pogroms and genocides against Christian communities in Southern Kaduna State.”

Source: StreetReporters.ng