HURIWA Lampoons IG Adamu on Bandits

HURIWA Lampoons IG Adamu on Bandits

An advocacy and Rights group – Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has criticised the position of the  Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Adamu justifying opening communication line with armed bandits in the North Central of the country.

The group also condemned the provision of N100 billion for the National Livestock Transformation Plan which it insisted was compensation in another guise for the Fulani stock.

The group dismissed the approach as having “pedestrian regional and religious underpinnings” for contemplating dialogue with mass murderers.

In a statement by its Executive Director, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group lashed out at the decision by the governors of Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto to go into negotiations with armed Fulani bandits responsible for hundreds of deaths and the destructions of properties worth several billions as against enforcement of relevant laws against murders and criminality.

“Let it be known to the current IGP Mohammed Adamu that his latest statement equating criminal armed mass killers as same as the Niger Delta agitators is not only disingenuous, pedestrian, spurious, puerile and myopic, but it is a direct affront to the constitution of Nigeria.

“It is absolutely wrong to have compared the Niger Delta agitators who took up arms to compel the multinational crude oil producing entities to stop polluting and destroying the ecosystem and the overall environments with pure brigands and armed bandits in the North West who have no cause for their odious, atrocious and totally unlawful actions of killing children, women and old people all in the name of seeking to obtain the unlawful opportunities of dialoguing with politicians for financial benefits. It is so wrong that the IGP is being allowed to defecate on the constitution. This trend of thought is similar to a victim of rape championing the cause of the rapists.

“It is totally incorrect to compare Niger Delta agitators with armed bandits of North West unless the political class in the North alongside their allies in the security forces are now accepting the responsibility for setting up the bandits in their bid to win big compensations for the criminals.

“The Niger Delta agitators fought for a just cause and were never known to have killed civilians. Niger Delta is the region that has provided 98 per cent of the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy by way of crude oil resources. The environment was devastated and the people whose livelihoods were devastated by the activities of crude oil explorations demanded for justice. Why will the IGP compare these freedom fighters that killed no civilians to armed bandits of North West who killed hundreds of their own people?,” they queried.

Apparently miffed by the approach, HURIWA called for the sacking of the  Adamu for playing the role of the advocate for Northern armed bandits in direct contradiction with the constitutional provision which necessitated the creation of the police as an institution of law enforcement.

“Those who have embraced criminality of armed banditry in any part of Nigeria must be arrested and dealt with in accordance with the law of the land. Section 33(1) of the constitution clearly spells out that illegal killing of citizens must absolutely never be tolerated.

“Similarly, the budget of N100 billion been proposed for the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan is the attempt by the central government to grant compensation package to members of the armed Fulani herdsmen who are nothing but terrorists that ought to be prosecuted and locked up for killings and destruction of farmlands and farmers including Catholic priests in all parts of Nigeria.

“HURIWA is of The opinion that the NEC meeting presided over by a severely incapacitated and weakened Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, is simply an effort to smuggle from the backdoor the RUGA Settlement programme for Fulanis which most Nigerians in the South and parts of Northern States especially in the North Central states rejected.

 “We read that the Chairman of the sub-committee and Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr. Dave Umahi, made the presentation to NEC. Also disingenuously, Mr. Umahi explained that contrary to the widely held belief, the NLTP was not about cows alone but had three planks, including care for persons displaced by farmers/herders’ crisis and education programmes. He also repeated the propaganda lines of the Presidency that states are free to use any animals of their choice in implementing the programme.

It’s a big shame that the governor said the committee proposed that the federal government would bear 80 per cent of the N100bn, while participating states would support with the balance of N20bn and land for the programme and added that the programme remained voluntary and would accommodate only states that expressed participation interest,” they fumed.

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