Nigerian: President Asked To Declare Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists As 50 killed

Citizens across Nigeria have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately declare Fulani herdsmen are currently terrorizing the country as a terrorist group.
The Fulani herdsmen are a group of northern herdsmen who are currently holding the country hostage with the killing of people across the nation.
In the recent attack that is currently generating ripples; more than 50 persons were killed in various communities in Benue state.
The gory incident commenced on the New Year day till Wednesday before another attack was carried out on Friday morning
The attacks, which spilled over to Wednesday, came on the heels of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law by the state government, which the Fulani herdsmen believe a threat to their means of livelihood.
Caracal Reports had learned that the attack started with the invasion of two communities in Guma and other three communities in the Logo Local Government Areas of Benue state.
The affected communities include Gaambe-Tiev, Ayilamo, and Turan all in Logo LGA as well as Umenger, Tse-Akor and Tomatar near Tse-Abi in Nongov District of Guma LGA.
It was also learned further that Gaambe-Tiev, Ayilamo, and Turan villages in Logo LGA were also attacked on New Year day when people were returning from church in the morning.
The herdsmen who were numbering about two hundred descended on the communities around 10 pm on Monday and continued the attack till dawn on Tuesday, killing people with guns and burning down their houses.
Sources from the Benue state said the attack was coordinated attacks on five communities by the well-armed herdsmen who stormed the villages in large number.
A citizen who was simply identified as Ahmad said “When they come to your compound, they will burst your door, take you outside and spray bullets on all of you. It was the first time I will see such thing. When it was about two houses to our house, my sibling and I had to flee through a window. When they saw that our house was deserted, they put fire in it”.
Our correspondent also gathered that the herdsmen razed several homes. The situation led to people deserting their communities for safety.
Our correspondent also learned that the sad incident made the state University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, filled with causalities and corpses.
The Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom, who spoke on the sad event with tears, said that no matter the level of intimidation and killings by the herdsmen, the anti-open grazing law would not be reversed or repealed.
“This is unfortunate. The security agencies of this country are aware of what is happening in Benue. So many people are being killed, many houses destroyed, some innocent children were slaughtered, other sliced in the throat just because they want to be law abiding.
“Even amongst the livestock guards, who were there to ensure that there are no clashes, nine of them were killed, and innocent women and children were killed. This is not fair.”
Meanwhile, some citizens of Nassarawa state have also deserted their homes due to attacks on some neighboring communities in Benue State by Fulani herdsmen.
It was learned that the residents who are majorly farmers fled their homes in Boutsa, Demekaa and Ayoosu among others in the Keana Local Government Area of the state for fear of being attacked by the rampaging herdsmen who are currently taking refuge at Keana South Primary School.
The Fulani herdsmen also attacked Ikorodu community in Lagos where over 200 hectares farmland were destroyed with a farmer killed.
Apparently worried by the development, several citizens have been calling on the Federal government to declare the Fulani herdsmen as a terrorist group immediately.
They said, despite that group are from the president’s tribe, he must eschew favoritism and declare them terrorists.
Ekiti state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, in his take over the incident, condemned the president over what he termed the “Silence” of the first citizen to the brutal killing of Nigerians during the festive periods.
“I am deeply sad about the killing going on in Benue State. When will these killings by Fulani herdsmen stop? When is President Buhari going to act? Isn’t the silence of the President suggestive?”
The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the recent massacre of defenseless Nigerians in Benue, Rivers, Kaduna and other states by marauders as extremely wicked, iniquitous and horrifying.
The party also flayed as inexcusable, what it said is the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government to act upon early danger signs and threats by taking cautionary measures that could have averted the killings, particularly in Benue state.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement lamented what he described as “the insensitivity of the APC Presidency which reacted to the ugly incidents only after the PDP and well-meaning Nigerians called them to the task.
The party said “the height of insensitivity of the APC Presidency became glaring in its reaction, wherein a media aide issued what it described as some apathetic and indifferent lines without any explicit commitment towards bringing the perpetrators to book and assurances of adequate security to forestall a reoccurrence.
The PDP also called on the Presidency to have some soul-searching about its silence and loud indifference whenever citizens fall under such horrifying attacks. “What a way to start the New Year?
“We, therefore, charge our military and other security agencies to leave no stone unturned in this direction. “Nigeria belongs to all of us; every citizen has a right to life, and no man should take the life of another for any reason or under any guise whatsoever, the statement said. “The PDP also commiserated with the families of the victims, even as it directed its members across the board to assist and continue to pray for them.
Meanwhile, a member of the House of Representatives, Istifanus Gyang, has called President Muhammadu Buhari led the government to profiled and proscribed Fulani herdsmen as terrorists.
According to him, “Fulani herdsmen should be treated in the same manner as Boko Haram insurgents.
“Anyone or persons saying that the attacks and killings are a basis for partisanship and politicking must either be insane or is merely being insensitive to the bloodbath that has been witnessed all this while.
“The truth is that there is a quest by the herdsmen to acquire land and territory for occupation forcefully. 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.”
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) also called Muhammadu Buhari administration to shun tribalism and ethnic jingoism by proscribing armed Fulani herdsmen and declaring the association that backs it as terrorists.
It also wants the administration to take military and administrative measures to fully disarm the herdsmen and prosecute those among them who have been responsible for the spate of killing of villagers all across the country.
HURIWA, in a statement jointly authorized by the National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, said that from a study it conducted in the last two years, armed Fulani herdsmen have wasted over 6000 innocent lives in coordinated violence across many states in Nigeria.
According to the group the continued tolerance of continuing attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen by the Federal Government under the Fulani Katsina state born President Muhammadu Buhari is creating the impression of a Presidency headed and directed by bigots and ethnic jingoists.
The rights group carpeted President Buhari and the Inspector General of Police Alhaji Ibrahim Kpotum Idriss for their “disgraceful and unfortunate silence” days after the dastardly crime of the violent killings of policemen by armed Fulani herdsmen.
“We strongly condemn any such revenge killings targeting innocent Fulani citizens of Nigeria, and we urge the relevant law enforcement agencies to do the needful by preventing such dastardly crime from ever happening and apprehending the persons responsible for both attacks which targeted Fulani community and the Mobile Policemen.”
HURIWA wondered why the President was in a hurry to pronounce the non-violent Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as a terror organisation just for campaigning for self-determination of South East of Nigeria but the same President looks the other way and maintained undignified and worrying conspiratorial silence over numerous cases of armed invasions of communities by armed Fulani herdsmen in Enugu, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Edo and Delta State.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has met with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, amid rising tensions following the recent killings in Benue State and other parts of the country.
The President discussed with the police boss on Friday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Mr. Idris maintained that the Nigeria Police is working hard to address the issues.
He also attributed the crises to communal misunderstanding in the affected communities and called on Nigerians to learn to live in peace with one another.