A coalition of faith-based and Civil Society Organizations on Wednesday stormed Yola, the Adamawa State capital, to demand an end to herdsmen/farmers crises in the country.

The group is accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of feigning blind eyes to the killings, while Fulani herdsmen continue to rain terror on innocent Nigerians.

They decry the, “ethno-religious cleansing moves” by the Fulani herdsmen, saying the Fulani killers were being embolden by government’s lack of decisive action.

They wondered how ordinary ragtag and uneducated Fulani nomads could acquire sophisticated firearms and continue to use them with reckless abandon.

“We whole heartedly support the move by the police to clean up firearms from the hands of unauthorised persons, but it must start from Fulani herdsmen;

“Otherwise we hold strong reservation, as it appears to us like the move is aimed at rendering most communities vulnerable to afford herdsmen an advantage to overrun our villages;

“We have enough evidence to make this assertion, because herdsmen’s strikes are usually preceded by an earlier alarm, yet security men will not be proactive,” one of their leaders, who gave his name as Nicholas, asserted.

The group, therefore, vowed to resist any move by the government to silence their collective voices, stressing thus, “We are sending this message to President Buhari, asking him to act as president of Nigeria and defend our communities, else we will be left with no option than to invent ways to protect ourselves against these killer herdsmen.”

There was a mild drama at PZ round about, near the Yola International Airport where members of the coalition who dressed in black, were forced by the police to disperse.

The coalition had initially converged on PZ roundabout, some five kilometres to the Government House, where they planned to march to Government House to make their grievances known to Governor Jibirilla Bindow. But armed policemen blocked them, saying that the gathering would undermine the fragile peace of the state.

The group later reassembled at the NUJ State Secretariat just a stone throw to the governor’s residence, but were met by a barricade of mobile policemen.

They consequently accused the police of being arm-twisted by the political class to suppress the truth. As according to them, “The police have detained our CAN Youth President, Ajine Delo, and Stanley Mijah for announcing the planned rally on the social media.”

But spokesman of the state command of the Nigerian Police, SP Othman Abubakar, has denied the claim, saying that the planned rally would undermine the fragile peace of the state.

(Nigerian Pilot)

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