A non-governmental organisation, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has warned that the dare-devil activities and blood-cuddling violence of armed Fulani herdsmen is gradually leading Nigeria to the edge of a precipice which, if unchecked, may result in an avoidable civil war, given the seeming conspiratorial silence and orchestrated inaction of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.

The group also warned law enforcement agencies and the armed forces to rein in their errant commanders and management level officers to stop deploying armed security operatives to work as cohorts of the suspected armed Fulani herdsmen to create anarchy and civil unrest across the nation.

HURIWA, which expressed this concern in a statement endorsed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, alleged that some top commanders of Division1of the Nigeria Army, without any express permission or authorisation from the Office of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieut-Gen Tukur Buratai, had illegally deployed armed soldiers that invaded Awgu community in Enugu State, whereby 76 indigenous Igbo land owners were arrested and hauled into the Umuahia (Abia State) prison, for allegedly resisting the plots and activities of some armed Fulani herdsmen to annex some of their ancestral farmlands for the purposes of illegal grazing of cattle.

Besides, HURIWA strongly recommended that, “the security operatives acting in the most efficiently professional manner, should immediately dismantle and arrest the well-coordinated armed Fulani terrorists, who are currently engaging in the criminal kidnap of prominent Nigerians for the purposes of extorting heavy ransom.”

The group particularly condemned, as the height of provocation, the kidnap of a Catholic priest, Rev Father Aniako Celestine, priest-in-charge of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Ukana, Udi Local Government Area, who was kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen Saturday evening on his way from his home town, Ezeagu.

The rights group said military and police commanders within the South-east must check this dangerous trend, adding: “That the herdsmen demanded a ransom of N10 million through the hostage's mobile number has demonstrated the sophisticated nature of this crime”, even as it wondered why the law-enforcement agents are yet to deploy necessary tracking technological systems to arrest these armed kidnappers.

“The frightening report in the dailies that the activities of herdsmen in Ugwuleshi, Awgu Local Government Area of the state, last week, led to destruction of farmland and livestock worth millions of naira and the detention of 76 members of the community, who were later granted bail by Umuahia Magistrate Court, last Friday, following Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s intervention, is a serious cause for concern.

“The further aggravating news that Fulani herdsmen had also killed two sisters in Abbi, Uzo Uwani Local Government Area last month, leaving 17 houses burnt, is reprehensible and abominable. The President should implement transparent measures to disarm these armed Fulani marauders who are currently rampaging all across the rest of Nigerian communities. The Federal Government of Nigeria headed by a Fulani indigene of Katsina State, Muhammadu Buhari must act now to prevent imminent civil war which may be occasioned by the unwarranted levels of destruction by armed Fulani herdsmen.”

•Photo shows Comrade Onwubiko.

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