The House of Representatives recently passed a resolution enjoining President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a presidential task force to disarm all herdsmen in the country. The motion on the presidential task force was moved by the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Mr. Orker Jev, and ten other lawmakers.
The lawmakers said that the resurgence of killings by herdsmen in Benue State needed the urgent attention of the president. They directed the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to look into the latest attacks with a view to bringing the culprits to justice.
The recent attacks by Fulani herdsmen in Buruku Federal Constituency of Benue State claimed the lives of 20 people. In 2016, about 7,000 people were displaced in Agatu and many others killed after herdsmen invaded the area. The herdsmen’s murderous attacks have been carried out in Kaduna, Enugu, Delta, Ekiti, Oyo, Ogun and some other states in the country.
In all these attacks, many people lost their lives, while farm crops were destroyed and women raped. Although the herdsmen menace started even before President Buhari came to power, its intensity has now increased tremendously. Being a Fulani, Nigerians had expected that the president would call the mostly Fulani herdsmen to order, to stop the bloodletting.
We commend the House of Representatives for mustering the courage to call on the president to rise to the occasion and rein in the killer herdsmen harassing innocent Nigerians with AK-47 military assault rifles in different parts of the country. For too long, the herdsmen have been treated with kid gloves. The Federal Government’s ominous silence and seeming inaction to contain them have often been interpreted as official endorsement of their heinous acts.
The argument in some quarters that the killer herdsmen are not Nigerians does not justify their criminality. If, indeed, they are foreigners, the security agencies should go after them. They should be arrested, prosecuted and deported, when found guilty of infractions of the law.
They should not be allowed to get away with these killings. Doing so will embolden more of them to toe that wicked and ignoble path. The fact that they are called foreigners does not confer immunity on them or give them licence to kill innocent Nigerians. It should, instead, be a reason to expel them from the country.
It is regrettable that in spite of the laws barring Nigerians from carrying arms illegally, the Fulani herdsmen carry guns with levity and the Federal Government is silent about it. The fact that the Federal Government allows the herdsmen to bear arms and destroy other people’s crops made some state governments to enact laws against the herdsmen menace, but it is doubtful that the law enforcement agencies are ready to enforce these laws.
We support the House of Representatives in its effort to disarm the herdsmen and call on all Nigerians to support this initiative. We say this because Nigeria will know no peace and unity as long as the herdsmen are allowed to operate unhindered. We call on President Buhari to rise to the occasion and disarm these herdsmen.
He should abide by his oath of office and perform his constitutional role of protecting and defending all Nigerians, irrespective of their party, creed or ethnicity. This, indeed, is the primary responsibility of the government.
The government has clearly not done well in this regard. Let government disarm the herdsmen, whether they are Nigerians or foreigners. The time has come to end illegal possession of firearms in the country.