Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere has lashed out at the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for protesting the claim that Fulanis are responsible for the incessant killings and other crimes in other regions.
The ACF, a pan-Northern organisation, had on Wednesday lashed out at the Southern and Middle Belt Forum leaders, saying they should stop criminalising the Fulani.
But reacting on Thursday, the Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, described the ACF’s allegation as rubbish.
Odumakin stated, ”The ACF and the Fulani should ensure the arrest of all those involved in kidnappings and killings across the country; and when they are sure they are not Fulani, then they can say they are not Fulani.
“Even many of the officials have admitted that those killing people are Fulani; Governor Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State) said he paid off Fulani who killed people in his state. When there was insurgency in the Niger Delta, did we not refer to them as Niger Delta militants? Until the Nigerian Presidency under a Fulani man arrests them and identify them as non-Fulani, they can’t tell us that hogwash.”
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo said that the incessant killings, kidnappings and other criminal activities by the Fulani herdsmen in the nook and cranny of Nigeria altogether had become a national crisis.
Ohanaeze National Publicity Secretary, Prince Uche Achi-Okpaga, said the deliberate ploy to colour the wide spread condemnation to appear as a figment of anti-fulani vituperations notwithstanding must be discarded.
He said, “Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Middle Belt Forum and allies are not the harbingers of the news. Communities, villages and families of the victims cry every day with undeniable proofs.
READ ALSO: Graphic Video): Man shot at Sango Police Station writhes in pain, dies
“The conventional and new media are awash with video evidence of the Fulani herdsmen caught red-handed in their kidnapping and other criminal activities.
“We expect that at this time, the ACF should advise the Presidency to employ the same swiftness with which they marshalled the Army that rolled her tanks against harmless IPOB members on the supposed bandits and miscreants.
“You can tell a blind man that there is no oil in the soup but not salt.
“We have been told that the herdsmen killing Nigerians are foreigners. They have not been declared terrorists. Instead, the government wants to take the people’s land, in the guise of Ruga, and give to the same people that they described as foreigners.”
“Note that another Holocaust is brewing. The Shi’ites are constituting a severe security threat at the Federal Capital Territory and unless the issue is properly handled, there will be trouble.
“Their argument is that the government has defied a subsisting court order and holding their leader to captivity, adding that they are ready to sacrifice many of their members in the course of fighting for the freedom of their leader.”