A member of the House of Representatives, Istifanus Gyang, has said that Fulani herdsmen should be profiled and proscribed as terrorists by the Buhari led Federal Government.
According to him, Fulani herdsmen should be treated in the same manner as Boko Haram insurgents.
Gyang, said this in Abuja yesterday while reacting to a statement by a socio-cultural organisation, the Plateau Patriotic Youth Movement (PPYM), asking him to face his legislative business and desist from playing petty politics with the crisis in the state.
Gyang also condemned the fracas between security personnel attached to the Joint Military Task Force and residents of Sopp community in Riyom Local Government Area, in which three youths were shot.
The legislator had accused the soldiers of “sexual harassment and deliberate shooting”.
But the PYYM asked him to “deliver practical dividends of democracy rather than play politics.”
Reacting, Gyang said “Anyone or persons saying that the attacks and killings in my constituency are a basis for partisanship and politicking must either be insane or is simply being insensitive to the bloodbath that has been witnessed all this while.
“I take exception to such unfortunate insinuations. We must not trivialize issues that have to do with the lives of a people that are being hunted and killed as men hunting wild game. It is indeed sad and very unfortunate.
“Today, one-quarter of Barkin Ladi LG and one-third of Riyom LG are under occupation by the very persons that were welcomed and accommodated by their Berom hosts. The narrative that the attacks are simply conflicts between farmers and herdsmen is no longer tenable.
“The truth is that there is a quest by the herdsmen to forcefully acquire land and territory for occupation. Under this unfortunate development, the Nigerian state and government, which have the constitutional responsibility of protecting citizens from aggression have left the victims at the mercy of the marauding herdsmen.
“These attacks have to be profiled and classified as acts of insurgency and treated with the same response as Boko Haram has been handled.”
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