-WANTS MIYETTI CATTLE OWNERS ASSOCIATION DECLARED A TERRORIST GROUP:
Urging South East Governors to adopt a regional approach to secure the Igbo speaking region and back efforts by the Enugu State Governor Rt.Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to check the incessant terror attacks by armed Fulani terrorists in IsiUzo local government area of Enugu State, the Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy Group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned strongly the frequent terrorist attacks launched by armed Fulani militia targeting parts of Enugu State leading to deaths of hundreds of Igbo people.
The Rights group wondered where the military involved in OPERATION NEW DAWN that had killed many civilians under the guise of combating Eastern Security Network has gone to whilst these unprovoked attacks by Fulani terrorists in Enugu are waged successfully. HURIWA is calling on the Inspector General of Police, the Army Chief of Staff and the rest of the Service chiefs including the Chief of Defense Staff to halt these incessant attacks by armed Fulani terrorists which are meant to provoke civil unrest in the Country.
The Rights group said these blood cuddling violence against the Igbo speaking people by armed Fulani terrorists are the fundamental basis for the call by the South East political leaders to collectively set up a security structure to protect the civilians who frequently come under incessant attacks by armed Fulani terrorists.
“We in the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) are very impressed that the Enugu State Governor is on top of the situation and has effectively activated workable mechanisms to forestall future reoccurrence and we are encouraging the government of Enugu State to pursue the path of putting in place water- tight and fool-proof security network including the setting up of Statewide armed vigilante backed by a law of the Enugu State House of Assembly in line with Section 4(7) of the Nigerian Constitution for the security and good governance of the good people of Enugu State”.
“The Rights group said the efforts by the Governor of Enugu State to galvanise resources and manpower to secure the people of Enugu State is in tandem with Section 14(2) (B) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended which makes security of lives and property of citizens as the primary of government. We urge the South East Governors Forum and the South East Political establishment not to abandon the good people of IsiUzo LGA who are now made Internally Displaced persons by the rampaging and marauding armed Fulani terrorists who are inevitably on a nationwide Jihad supported by top flight security Chiefs in Abuja who are all Fulani and Moslems by affiliation.”
HURIWA in a media statement authorised by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko stated that following reports of killings attributed to herdsmen and the tension that has enveloped Isiuzo Local Council of Enugu State, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has called for an emergency security meeting with leaders of the council in Enugu.
The Rights group cited a statement, on Friday by the Governor’s Special Adviser on Information, Steve Oruruo, the council chairman, all security heads in the council, traditional rulers, presidents-general, the clergy and youth leaders are expected at the meeting taking place in Government House, today Saturday just as Governor Ugwuanyi is expected to use the meeting to fine-tune strategies on how to tackle growing insecurity in Isiuzo that had claimed lives, property and farmlands.
HURIWA said it is supporting the government of Enugu State to mobilise resources and organise necessary manpower to secure the State from infiltrators even as the Rights group said the South East Region must activate broad-based and regional wide strategic security framework for efficiency and effectiveness because together as one the citizens can be better secured from external aggressors and internal saboteurs.
The Rights group recalled that uneasy calm pervaded the council since December last year, after suspected herdsmen reportedly kidnapped, in a week, seven residents who returned for the 2021 Christmas and New Years celebrations. HURIWA quoted media report that five of the victims were said to have been abducted along the Eha-Amufu/Agu-Amede/Ikem road, even as residents of the area lamented that no week passed without a report of people being killed by bandits suspected to be herdsmen along the Eha-Amafu/Ikem road.
HURIWA recalled that last week, the wife and child of the brother of a serving commissioner in the state were reportedly kidnapped in their home and taken to an unknown destination. Sources stated that some vigilante members, who went after the kidnappers, did not return alive.
Besides, HURIWA asserted that on Wednesday, the state woke with reports of sack of five village farm settlements in Mgbuji Autonomous Community, Eha-Amafu, with killing of five persons, including children and women.
The Rights group said the development came barely five days after three members of the state’s Neighbourhood Watch were killed while pursuing kidnappers to rescue the wife and 11-year-old daughter of the younger brother to the Enugu commissioner that were abducted on January 1. It was gathered that since Mgbuji had been visited with kidnap and killings, the residents no longer find the place safe and had, therefore, been escaping to other communities for safety.
HURIWA has also urged the President Muhammadu Buhari if he is a statesman to categorically declare the terrorists supporting platform known as MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE OWNERS ASSOCIATION as a terrorist group and apprehend the national and regional leaders of this war mongering group of persons that have in the recent past vocalised active support for the terrorist groups made up of armed Fulani herdsmen who are on rampage in different parts of the Country.
HURIWA said there is no difference between MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE SELLERS ASSOCIATION and the armed bandits of the North West recently declared terrorists by the Federal High Court Abuja division even as the Rights group backs the call by the Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom that Miyetti Allah ought to have been declared a terrorist group.
HURIWA blames MIYETTI ALLAH for the action of the Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen that reportedly shot three persons dead in Molege, an agrarian settlement in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State just as the men were said to have stormed the area at about midnight on Thursday, setting some houses and farms ablaze. HURIWA said it is no secret that the National leadership of the MIYETTI ALLAH had consistently made threats in the media to make Ondo State ungovernable because the Governor expelled armed Fulani herdsmen occupying forests ìn the State.
Similarly, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA is shocked at the callousness and crude wickedness of the terrorists who unleashed venomous and blood cuddling violence on innocent villagers in Zamfara State.
THE RIGHTS GROUP demanded the resignation from office of Governor Matawalle for his government’s spectacular failure to secure villagers just as the group demanded censure for the military chiefs who failed to prevent these horrendous terror killings in Zamfara State.
The Rights group has said if these killings happened in a humane and civilised society and not a primitive cave like Nigeria, the Inspector General of Police would have either resigned, dismissed by the President or arrested and prosecuted for dereliction of duty but HURIWA regretted that President Muhammadu Buhari enjoys incompetence and show of shame from his appointees.
HURIWA recalled that Over 200 persons are said to have been killed in the Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas of Zamfara State by fleeing bandits. It was gathered that the bandits, who were fleeing as a result of ongoing military operations, were trying to leave the state with large number of animals when they attacked some villages in the two local government areas, killing over 200 people in the process.
The attacked villages are Rafin Danya, Barayar Zaki, Rafin Gero and Kurfa. An indigene of the area, who gave his name as Mohammed Kurfa, said he was in his village when the bandits arrived.
Citing media interview with an eye witness Mr. Kurfa, HURIWA stated that the witness said they (terrorists) came with over 3,000 cattle and were trying to leave the state when members of a vigilante group tried to engage them in a gun battle. He stated, “When they were seen approaching the village, the vigilante group members came out to defend the people of the village, but they were overpowered by the bandits, who were moving in large numbers.
“They killed many of the vigilante group members and also set the village on fire”.
