Christian Group Condemns Attacks by Fulani Herdsmen

  • Flays indiscretion of northern governors

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The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) has condemned the recent attack by Fulani herdsmen on Nimbo in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The group also described as an insult added to injury for the so-called “19 northern states” governors to declare that the harbingers of death and destruction across the nation should not be labelled “Fulani” and alleged that the intelligence service is also being used to promote Islamist ideology in the Nigeria.

NCEF, which cited a petition written by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Solomon Asemota, to the Department of State Services (DSS), noted that having studied the petition and taken a global look on events in the country, the use of intelligence service to promote Islamist ideology is characteristic of authoritarian governments.

The group alleged that in enforcing a new ideology on a people, “the intelligence service has often been used to subvert, coerce, and intimidate the citizens.

“This was the reason Hitler introduced the Gestapo to promote the Nazi ideology, the Communists introduced KGB in Russia, and the Security Services of South Africa helped to entrench apartheid.

There is the need to overhaul the intelligence service of Nigeria so that it would fulfill its mandate of protecting Nigeria and not promote Islamist ideology,” the group added.

In its paper, ‘Weapons win Jihads but it takes ideas to win the peace,” NCEF also recommended an overhaul the intelligence service, to make it a Nigerian and not a “Northern” institution in the promotion of Islamism.
It also recommended the setting up of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to establish the platform for future relations of all Nigerians.

NCEF also called on all well-meaning Nigerians to condemn the attacks of what it described as the forces of Jihad on the Enugu community, saying that the attack was as an act of genocide.

The group warned Nigerians that if urgent steps were not taken, the forces of Jihad were determined to spread their tentacles of terror and destruction all over the nation in their unbridled determination to turn Nigeria into a Sharia state.

It accused the Fulani herdsmen of attempting to assassinate Cardinal John Onaiyekan on Friday, April 29, 2016 along Benin-Ekpoma road in Edo State.

“Suspected herdsmen shot at his vehicle and if not for the intervention of God, a notable leader of the Christian faith in the nation would have been assassinated. According to reports, his vehicle was ridden with bullet holes,” NCEF said.

The group condemned what it called “unwarranted attacks targeted primarily at Christians and Christian communities by the forces of Jihad seeking to redefine Nigerian from a Democratic nation into an Islamic theocratic state.”
NCEF also considered the position of the 19 northern governors as cruel, inhuman, and insensitive for declaring that the harbingers of death and destruction across the nation should not be labeled ‘Fulani.’

“We wonder which identity the governors want to place on them? From the Middle Belt to the southern parts of the nation, this particular group of people have been killing Nigerians, raping women in their farms, destroying farms with impunity and sacking mainly Christian communities. Even international observers have noted that the fourth most dangerous terror organisation in the world are the Fulani herdsmen,” the group added.

It insisted that Governor Shettima of Borno State should immediately apologise to the nation.

NCEF said it was absolutely shocked that governors of the Middle Belt states were included in this group of northern governors and none of them came out to refute the statement of Governor Shettima of Borno State on behalf of the northern governors.

“NCEF finds it a puzzle that governors of the Middle Belt states that so far, have borne the brunt of the attacks of the Fulani herdsmen can stand in denial of the forces that have afflicted their people,” the group said.
“The NCEF expects the governors of the Middle Belt to come out and distance themselves from the cruel joke of Shettima and the Sharia governors in the northern parts of Nigeria,” the group added.

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