Afenifere Berates Buhari on Herdsmen Crisis
Plateau PDP accuses Lalong of playing politics with security Police reverse CP redeployment Miyetti Allah denies report of retaliation
The Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, for the umpteenth time, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for his alleged non-chalant attitude in the handling of the killings in several parts of the country.
This is coming as the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) in Plateau State has accused the state Governor, Simon Lalong, of playing politics with the security of lives and property of the Plateau people, urging him to resign over his alleged cluelessness.
Afenifere in a communique at the end of its meeting in Akure, Ondo State, described as infuriating the responses of Buhari and that of Miyetti Allah on the killings.
The group in the three-point communique entitled: ‘Enough Is Enough’ signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said the response of the Miyetti Allah and that of the president came from the same source.
Disturbed by the devastating killings and attendant destruction, Afenifere said Nigerians must do everything possible to reject the re-election bid of the president.
The group said: “These wanton killings and official irresponsibility portray Nigeria as a barbaric entity and that Yoruba people are pained living in the same space with the bestial elements who kill innocent people in cruel manner.
“Nigerians must now gird their loins and see the democratic uprooting of this administration as a task that must be done in 2019 so as to save the country from utter destruction.
“There is no land where the blood of the innocent is being shed daily like Nigeria that can make progress in any area of human endeavor.” Afenifere said.
The group asked its people to have special prayers for the souls of all those killed and for God to have mercy on Nigeria in all our mosques on Friday June 29 and in our churches next Sunday July 1 for Him to see us through the last few months of this administration.
Afenifere also condemned Buhari on the calls for the restructuring of the country, particularly his statement when he met with Urhobo leaders.
The president was berated for saying that “every group asking for restructuring has got their own agenda and I hope it can be accommodated by the constitution.”
The Yoruba group said the call for restructuring was a selfless one to rescue the country.
“We say without any reservation to the president that the call for restructuring is a selfless call borne out of the need to retrieve Nigeria from the brink of collapse and put it back on track.
“If the president talks about people with personal agenda on restructuring, it can only be those who insert it in their manifestos to win elections and turn around to say they are getting different definitions of restructuring after they came to power.
“We insist that for the country to move forward and develop, it has to be restructured into a proper federation,” the communique stated.
Afenifere also rejected the idea of public funded ranches in Yorubaland, describing the move as an imperialist agenda of cresting Federal Cattle Territories (FCT) across Nigeria.
It said: “We insist that cattle rearing is a private business and the government has no business getting involved if there was no sinister motive.
“No inch of Yorubaland will be available for such and no governor should cede any land for such.”
In a related development, the PDP in Plateau State has accused the state Governor, Simon Lalong, of playing politics with the security of lives and property of the Plateau people, urging him to resign over his allegedly cluelessness.
Addressing journalists yesterday, the state Chairman of the party, Chief Damishi Sango, said parts of the state such as Bassa, Riyom, Barakin Ladi, Bokkos in the past two years have remained under siege without any abetment, adding that in spite of this, the Lalong-led administration has consistently been telling the world that there is peace in the state.
Sango said: “To confirm their position as a people with conscience deficit at times when they needed to cry out to their benefactors that all was and is not well, they had gone out singing peace that all is well where none exists.”
He said the administration was exposed last Saturday and Sunday when terrorists laid siege on communities in Gashshsi, Razak, Ruku, Soi, Ngar, GanaRopp all in Barakin Ladi Local Government Area, leaving on their trail over 200 dead persons and several persons injured.
“The saddest thing is that following the denial of access points where people were gruesomely murdered, human bodies are being left to rot in the bush. As I address you, corpses are still being recovered.”
He accused the state government of leadership failure for not arresting one culprit in the aftermath of the crime, adding that Lalong’s appointees ought to have served as watchdog for the government in all parts of the state and report accordingly any suspicious moves to the government and security agencies.
He insisted that “Lalong’s government has failed in its constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property and should therefore step aside.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Police have, reversed the redeployment of the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Undie Adie.
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, had yesterday morning directed the redeployment of Adie.
A statement issued by the Spokesperson of the state Police Command, Matthias Tyopev Terna, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, neither gave reasons for his deployment and the new posting of the CP.
He was replaced by Yobe State-born Bala Ciroma, who was until his new position, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department.
It was not sure if his redeployment has anything to do with his handling of the crisis in the state and the ‘huge’ casualty figure he released to the media in the aftermath of the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has denied complicity in the Plateau killings.
In a statement, signed by the state Chairman of MACBAN, Nuru Abdullah, the group said: “It is with dismay that I read the false media report that has gone viral against us alleging that we have admitted carrying out the violent attacks on some communities in Plateau State.
“The stories are mere falsehood against us by some media outfits.
“We make bold to say that Alhaji Danladi Chiroma never made such stupid statement. The report about the whole incident is unfounded and the media houses are only acting on the script of our enemies in order to tarnish our good reputation.”