The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has alleged that there is a well funded campaign by governors of northern states and top officials of the Federal Government to actively change the narratives of the real identities of the killer Fulani herdsmen wrecking havoc across Nigeria.
Making this assertion in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Ms Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA warned that if the plot is allowed to continue, it can create the impression that there is a grand cover up on the part of the Federal Government.
It wondered why the Minister of state for Agriculture, Mr Heineken Lokpobiri would make “sensationally untrue and unverifiable claims” before a Senate Committee yesterday that, “the mass killers who are armed Fulani herdsmen are foreigners.”
The Rights group said it was an act of sabotage on the part of top political office holders such as Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase and the minister to affirm that the killer Fulani herdsmen were foreigners even when there are overwhelming evidence based on documented accounts by leaders of the Fulani herdsmen of Nigeria which points to the fact that indeed some of those killings were premeditated acts of revenge for alleged cattle rustlings.
According to the statement, “HURIWA accused the top government officials who are shifting blame to foreigners for the incessant killings of playing to the gallery to please their pay masters who are mostly Fulani by ethnic origin.
“HURIWA stated that this attempt to change the narrative to suite the whims and caprices of the powers -that -be amounted to the breach of constitutional oath.”
Citing the seventh schedule of the constitution of the (of 1999) Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), HURIWA stated that the oath of office sworn to by top government functionaries clearly spells out that they must discharge their duties in accordance with the constitution of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity and well being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and must not allow their personal interest to influence their official conduct.
The group further said: “We are shocked that whereas top government and security officials failed in their constitutional duties to provide security of lives and property of Nigerians which is their primary legal obligations, we are even more scandalized that some key political and security officials of this administration are currently engaged in the spreading of propaganda in an attempt to sweep the impunity of the mass killings of Nigerians by fellow Nigerian Fulani herdsmen under the carpet to satisfy the interest of some Northern governors.”
“Why should these officials who operate from their air conditioned offices in Abuja seek to deny the claims by victims of the mass murders across the country especially in Agatu, Benue State, Dogo Nahawa in Plateau State and Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani in Enugu State who have first hand information that those who perpetrated these gruesome acts of mass killings were some armed members of the Fulani herdsmen who set up their communities and made themselves the neighbors of the Indigenous owners of those farming communities?
“These attempts at whitewashing the facts surrounding the various acts of mass murders are clear evidences that the current Federal Government is not willing to go after the real killers with the aim of bringing them to Justice.”
While demanding public apologies from the minister who appeared before a Senate Panel on Agriculture to make unscientific claims that the killer herdsmen were foreigners, HURIWA recalled that news reports have shown that those who perpetrated the atrocious mass killings in Enugu State did indeed perfect the criminal act in Kogi state.
It continued that a national daily has reported that the Kogi State Police Command now has in its custody, one of the suspected herdsmen who participated in the recent massacre of more than 48 persons in Nimbo community, Uzo-Uwani local government area of Enugu state.
“HURIWA has, therefore, express anxiety that there is a plot to set free the few armed Fulani herdsmen allegedly arrested in the scenes of all these massacres just so the well oiled Federal Government’s cover up can work,” the statement added.
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