Following yet another murderous rampage by herdsmen on the Kodomun community, Adamawa state, in the North East of the country which began on Monday; the Centre for Cultural and Religious Rights, CECURR has called on the Federal government to abandon its somewhat lackadaisical and insensitive disposition toward the incessant killings of innocent Nigerians.
CECURR speaking through its National Coordinator, Mr. Debo Adeniran, called on the government to embrace pro-activeness and decisiveness to immediately put a total halt to the killings that has persistently been perpetrated by Herdsmen along the length and breadth of the country for years.
Adeniran said “a government that is sensitive enough and knows its onions will value human lives and would have been outraged by the loss of lives and property whenever herdsmen carry out their barbaric bloodletting activities even before now.”
“One would have expected that by now government would have evolved an extra-ordinary security approach to the killings similar to the ones adopted against the Boko Haram insurgents, Arepo pipeline vandals/militants, the Niger/Delta militants etc considering that the activities of herdsmen across the country is gradually assuming terroristic dimensions.”
The media had reported resumed violence involving herdsmen and villagers at Kodomun village in Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State which claimed 15 lives and left many injured. Terror was said to have been unleashed on Kodomun village and some neighboring villages on Monday at about 6p.m. when the villagers were resting after a burial of an old woman. The death toll stands at 30 at the moment according to media reports.
The National Coordinator of CECURR said “clearly, the modus operandi of these herdsmen reflects that the incessant attacks are consciously coordinated which make them go beyond the narrow confines of skirmishes. That the herdsmen carry sophisticated weapons and the incessantness of these gory occurrences also portrays an ‘army with a cause’. It appears the murderers are ahead of the government on this matter, as the herdsmen appear to operate freely without constraints and with bare-faced immunity.”
“We are therefore calling on government to dump the ‘kid gloves’ attitude towards the bloodletting activities of herdsmen. A look at the pattern of their operations reveals that the attacks cannot be treated in isolation as they cut across the country giving it a very bold outlook of a ‘nests of killers’ conjoined and working in a network. Theoretically, there is the dire need to interrogate and deconstruct the background to these tragic incidences which have remained incessant and apparently undying so as to be able to identify the immediate and remote causes. This is what will help in finding solutions to the trend of senseless killings by herdsmen.”
“The government must not wait for these incidences to occur before acting as it is already a ‘phenomenon’; anticipatory intelligence work must be on the top plate given that the groups involved in these killings and their locations are identifiable. This will make areas that are potentially prone to the violence to be isolated for preemptive security arrangements to forestall the further senseless killings.”
The leader of CECURR challenged the government to be proactive in carrying out its responsibility as a government. “One of the most fundamental reasons governments are instituted in the first place is the protection of lives and property and to ensure the social well being of the citizenry as enshrined in Chapter 2 of the Nigerian Constitution. Where lives and property are being senselessly lost on such large scale as we have in this country can only mean one thing, and that is - the failure of government and governance! The time to act is overdue!”
Nov 26, 2024
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