Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), during an interview with a Symfoni correspondent has berated the late former President Muhammadu Buhari for the worsening security in the country and for allowing some Fulani militia to arm themselves.
“Buhari was the one in government when Fulani people started arming themselves. Then, if you remember, a certain governor of Ondo State, the lawyer, Rotimi Akeredolu, gave an order that anyone living in the forest should leave within 24 hours. Ondo State has a lot of forests, and the governor asked those living there to vacate.
“They are the ones living in the forests. No ordinary person, no reasonable person, lives in the forest like that. The Fulani groups—those are the ones there. However, there are good Fulani people who live in towns. They are civilized, organized, law-abiding, advanced, and educated. It’s just a small percentage, maybe about 15%, that are involved in these crimes you hear about, and they are the ones in the bush. I don’t know what they are looking for there.
“Then the governor said, ‘Leave the bush, or I will force you out.’ Do you know that Muhammadu Buhari—I don’t even know whether he was fully present or not—used his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, a journalist like us, to issue a statement questioning the governor and asking why he wanted to evacuate Fulani people from the forests?
“Then some militia groups also said they would no longer recognize him as governor and would do whatever they wanted. The president did not say anything further, and they continued acting as they pleased. Before you knew it, the governor, who stood his ground, died under unclear circumstances.
“However, he did one important thing. That late governor mobilized the people of the South-West. They are very organized and proactive people. If the governors in the South-East were as strategic as those in the South-West, I don’t think these terrorists would have infiltrated those areas the way they are doing now.
“The South-West governors, under Akeredolu’s leadership, set up a regional security outfit called Amotekun. Amotekun is doing very well.”……See More
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