By Innocent Anaba, Kingsley Omonobi, Henry Umoru, Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Joseph Erunke & Enyim Enyim
Spurred by the divergent comments trailing the Fulani herdsmen attacks in communities across Nigeria, senators from the North, under the aegis of Northern Senators, yesterday warned governors, leaders and community heads in the country to desist from making inflammatory statements that could further overheat the polity. This came as Defence Headquarters also, yesterday, vowed that whoever was involved in the killing of innocent Nigerians must be brought to book, in line with the laws of the land.
Rising from a meeting in Abuja, the northern senators promised that, as part of moves to nip in the bud the continued clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, the lawmakers would soon come up with new laws as well as amend existing ones to help promote the interest of Northern Nigeria in particular and the country at large.
They also warned that there would be no country called Nigeria, if other parts of the country asked Fulani herdsmen to leave their communities and states.
- Related: NewsRescue-BREAKING: SERAP Sues FG In ECOWAS Court Over Killings By Herdsmen, Nigerian Army, Others
Reading a communique issued at the end of the meeting to journalists, Chairman, Northern Senators’ Forum, Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa West), who noted that the forum resolved to continue its support for President Muhammadu Buhari in order to bring about even development to all sections of the country, said members of the Forum shall work assiduously to enact laws and amend existing ones. He said:
“We appreciate the steps the Federal Government had taken so far to contain the problems of herdsmen/farmers clashes and call on community leaders to be careful when making statements on these ugly incidences.”
Asked whether the forum’s call on community leaders to be mindful of what they say was also applicable to governors of respective states, Senator Adamu said:
“It is for all Nigerians. A governor is a community leader. The only difference is that he has a label called governor.
“If you don’t mind, in recent times, it started with the West when elder statesman, Chief Olu Falae, had some very nasty experience. It was attributed at the time to Fulani herdsmen. At the end, those people were apprehended and they were not Fulanis.
“This thing has been going on in virtually all parts of the country today. If we now say that everybody should rise and say herdsmen should leave, we will not have a country.”
It would be recalled that Northern governors were reported to have said that Fulanis were not culpable in the spate of killings in Agatu, Enugu, others.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/enugu-attacks-northern-senators-warn-govs-leaders/
NewsRescue STRONGLY implores Nigerians not to take the law into their own hands and never to kill and have to live with the knowledge that they killed innocent people who did not directly harm them in ‘retaliation’ for what others of the victims’ tribes might have done.