Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the national Assembly (NASS) to compel the Executive arm of the federal government “to evolve measures for prosecuting Nigeria’s immediate past President, Muhammadu Buahri, for allegedly unleashing killer herders on the country which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths during his regime, as well as prosecution of killer herdsmen for committing crimes against humanity.”

HURIWA made the call while reacting to a statement credited the House of Representatives Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, who referred to the killings allegedly committed by the killer herders during the Buhari administration as herders-famers clash and putting the casualty figures at 60, 000. The group described as dubious, the labeling of killings as herders-farmers clash; and the casualty figure as inaccurate and unscientific. It also insisted that there was nothing like herders-farmers clash but armed herders’ terrorism against farmers.

HURIWA was reacting to a public speech by the House Speaker in which he claimed that Herders-farmers clashes claimed 60,000 lives in 22 years and urged the Speaker to ensure that the killer herders were prosecuted and punished for their crimes against humanity rather than running media commentary on the casualty figures.

At a public function on Monday, the Speaker, represented by Deputy, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, claimed that 60, 000 lives have been lost to herder-farmer clashes since 2001, regretting that the crisis, hitherto seen as a regional conflict, has expanded to parts of the country and borders of several West African nations.

Rt. Hon. Tajudeen made the disclosure in his address at the stakeholders’ interactive session by the House Ad-hoc Committee on the “Recurring Annual Clashes Between Farmers and Herders in Yamaltu/Deba Local Government Area Of Gombe State and Neighbouring Local Government Areas, including Other Regions of the Country with Similar Incidents,” in Abuja.

The Speaker said: “The clashes have resulted in avoidable losses of lives and property. It is estimated that over 60,000 people have been killed since 2001. It ought not to be so. The number of deaths, injuries and kidnapped persons constitute an alarming situation, and poses a serious national security challenge for Nigeria’s quest to attain food security and alternative foreign earnings from the agricultural sector. This menace requires urgent action to be taken.”

HURIWA, whilst expressing shock that top politicians from especially Northern Nigeria have strenuously attempted to twist the true story of the one–sided terror attacks on farmers by mostly armed Fulani herders, also faulted the casualty figure brandished by the Speaker for lacking in scientific accuracy. It therefore challenged the Speaker to publish details of the data from which he got the figure he brandished.

The group recalled that attacks from herders killed more Nigerians in 2018, compared to the number of deaths caused by Boko Haram in the country, according to the 2019 Global Terrorism Index (GTI).

The GTI report released in 2019 ranked Nigeria, for the fifth consecutive time, since 2015, as the third country with the worst impact from terrorism, globally.

The report said terror-related incidents in Nigeria increased by 37 per cent, from 411 in 2017 to 562 in 2018 and also deaths from terrorism in the country rose to 2,040 in 2018, a 33 per cent increase. “The increase was due to a substantial escalation of violence by ‘Fulani’ extremists, whilst Boko Haram recorded a decline in deaths from terrorism,” the report said

Besides, HURIWA reminds the House of Representatives’ Speaker that a concern was raised in the 2018 GTI report over the killings by herders. The report had warned that terrorism was shifting from Nigeria’s North-East region to the country’s Middle-Belt. “Violence between Nigerian herders and farmers intensified in early 2018 with approximately 300,000 people fleeing their homes. The most recent escalation in violence follows increased militia attacks and implementation of new anti-grazing legislation,” the latest report said.

HURIWA cited the same report as stating that: “In 2018, Fulani extremists were responsible for the majority of terror-related deaths in Nigeria at 1,158 fatalities. Terror-related deaths and incidents attributed to Fulani extremists increased by 261 and 308 per cent respectively from the prior year. Of 297 attacks by Fulani extremists, over 200 were armed assaults. Over 84 per cent of these armed assaults targeted civilians. However, also active and not recorded as terrorist activity are pastoralist militias who target the Fulani, increasing the likelihood of reprisals,” the report said.

The association said it was regrettable that politicians like Tajudeen Abass who have been in the National Assembly throughout President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure who allegedly gave free hand to armed herders to kill, maim and destroy farmers, their farmlands and to take over communities from farmers in such places like Southern Kaduna and Benue States, did nothing to bring the perpetrators of these dastardly criminal act of terrorism to justice.

"We in HURIWA are using this auspicious opportunity to task the House of Representatives to use their legislative powers to compel the executive arm of government and especially the offices of the Attorney-General of the Federation and that of the Inspector-General of Police to round up the suspected killer herders and prosecute them for these heinous crimes, instead reeling out number of casualties from the attacks staged by killer herders. Politicians should be concerned about bringing killer herders to justice than engage in media showmanship," National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, demanded in a statement on Tuesday.

HURIWA said the right step for the federal parliament was to implement measures to bring former President Muhammadu Buhari to justice for his willful failures to use his executive powers as the Commander-in-Chief to stop the carnage unleashed on farmers and mostly Christian Northerners by largely armed Fulani herdsmen.

HURIWA lamented that the former President rather than arrest the killer herders, staged seemingly unending subterranean and even brazenly open plots to seize lands from natives across the 36 states to set up settlements for strange Fulani herders, some of whom were suspected to have been imported from the Central African Republic and Niger by Miyetti Allah whose national patron was President Muhammadu Buhari then. HURIWA also alleged that the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari's administration frittered billions of tax payers money in settling Fulani herdsmen through the Miyetti Allah.

Update news