Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has berated the shoot-on-sight order given to security agencies by the Federal Government to deal with the crisis in the South East region.
Adebanjo, in a release made available to journalists by the National Publicity Secretary of the group, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said the rising hostility against the South-East zone since the beginning of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, must be a matter of great concern to well meaning Nigerians.
He said that from the moment Buhari became President, his disposition toward the Igbo was nothing but a demonstration of his own admission of 95 per cent versus five per cent of votes scored by him in the general election, stating that his mode of engagement in the South-East zone has been nothing but decisive, no dialogue, no civil discourse, just the gun and bullet approach.
Adebanjo added that the same fate do not, however, apply to Buhari’s Fulani ethnic group, exemplified by the herders, the fourth deadliest terrorist group as determined by Global Terrorism Index, the international body that monitors terrorism all over the world.
He said, “Whereas Buhari allows his Fulani people to roam freely, killing, maiming, raping, protecting, prevaricating to the Fulani herders, without a restraining order, the Igbo youths he orders his mainly Northern military to kill on sight.”
In what he described as a “devious plot,” Adebanjo recalled the genocide in Benue State a few years back in which the Fulani killed in their hundreds the innocent citizens of that state, noting that despite the incontrovertible identity of the killers, all Buhari had to say to the governor, was, “accommodate your neighbor,” with no arrest or indictment.
He decried the situation where two sets of laws exists in the country – a set of laws where the Fulani go scot free if they commit crime, while the life of others, especially that of the Igbo does not matter.
He added, “Take a look at the security council, no Igbo man is a member of Buhari’s security architecture. Is that how to run a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country like Nigeria?
“One will assume that Nigeria is now a theatre of bloodshed as our streets are now lined with the blood of innocent Nigerians, not paved with the gold Buhari promised Nigerians with his mantra of change. With this draconian order no opposition member is safe.
“To prevent yet another looming massacre in the South East zone, the President must be told that if he is sincere about the peace and unity of this country, his reckless and draconian order should be revoked forthwith.
Certainly if the President has no hidden agenda, there are more civilized and democratic ways to beef up the security in the South East.”
