Bothered by the apparent failure of the Imo State Governor Mr Hope
Uzodinma and the pliant House of Assembly to take steps to check the
growing number of attacks by armed Fulani terrorists and herdsmen in
parts of Imo State, the Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN
RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the trend
and strongly canvassed the passage and enforcement of legislation to ban
outdoor and open grazing of animals all over Imo State and to equip the
communities to set up active vigilantes in addition to the community
policing mechanism recently unveiled in the state.
Besides, the Rights group has admonished Governor Hope Uzodinma to tone
down the anti-opposition party’s rhetorical warfare being waged by his
administration against the major opposition platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party(PDP) and to begin proper governance in Imo state which
is seriously lacking given the widespread discontent and mass
dissatisfaction expressed by Millions of the good people of the state
who are legitimately worried about the lack of developmental focus by
the state administration which has created the security vacuum that has
impacted negatively on the wellbeing of the people as manifested by the
growing rates of killings and attacks orchestrated and organised by
armed Fulani herdsmen rampaging all around the farming communities in
the three Senatorial zones of Orlu, Okigwe and Owerri in the last couple
of months.
In a statement to the media by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel
Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) said it was
unfortunate that palpable tension had enveloped Obudi Agwa community in
Oguta council area of Imo State following marauding Fulani herdsmen
attacking and killing an indigene of the community in his farm.
“HURIWA is shocked to learn that for two weeks since after that gruesome
murder of Elder Ozoemena Iriaka who had gone to his farm in the morning
hours when he saw Fulani herdsmen grazing their cattle on his farm and
that he had confronted for grazing their cattle on his farm, the Imo
State House of Assembly and Governor Hope Uzodinma are still unable to
put pressure on the relevant security forces in Imo State to apprehend
the killer Fulani herdsmen and bring them to justice.
HURIWA lamented that the inaction of the Imo State government is the
motivating factor to these armed marauders who seem to have upped the
ante of their murderous attacks to other sections of the state including
the sexual violations and murder of a mother of four which till date
since after two weeks is yet to be resolved.
HURIWA stated that the primary duty and responsibility of government is
to secure the lives of the citizens just as the Rights group said it was
regrettable that even when it was further learnt that the deceased had
tried to chase away the cows from his farm, an action which had angered
the herdsmen who attacked him with their machetes, inflicting deep cuts
on the back of his head as he tried to escape from them, the Imo State
administration seems to be working on the theory that soon the matter
would be swept under the carpets.
“We reject this absolute neglect of the primary Constitutional
responsibility of government by the current political establishment in
Imo state and we call on the governor and the State House of Assembly to
pass the Anti-open grazing law in Imo state and to stop the infiltration
of the state by killer armed Fulani herdsmen.
“Hope Uzodinma as far as the law is concerned is the chief security
officer of Imo state by virtue of the legal fact that he is the governor
of Imo State. He must desist from thinking that he owns his allegiance
to the Fulani Caliphate going by the circumstances of his emergence
through a controversial verdict of the Supreme Court of Nigeria presided
over by the Fulani born Sharia jurist Alhaji Muhammad Tanko of Bauchi
State. Hope Uzodinma must govern Imo State for the benefit of Imo people
and the best way to go about it is to eliminate all traces of threats to
the security and lives and property of the good people of Imo State for
the period of time that he would preside over the affairs of Imo state.
Imo state people should organise and not agonize to protect their
ancestral lands from being overrun by foreign mercenaries masquerading
as Fulani herdsmen. Imo State must never be allowed to become a theatre
of terrorism”.
HURIWA has similarly tasked Governor Hope Uzodinma to arrest the
suspected killers who allegedly killed a 45-year-old woman, Mrs Susanna
Iwuoha, after raping her.
HURIWA recalled that Mrs Iwuoha, a mother of four from Alaocha,
Umuchiaku, in Lowa-Okata autonomous community, Ihitte Uboma Local
Government Area, was found dead with her face immersed into a local
stream some days after she left home for her farmland.
The Rights group said it is possible that she was killed by the same
armed Fulani herdsmen who killed the elderly farmer in Oguta because the
woman, whose undergarment was carted away by her attackers, was
discovered by a community search party after her children raised the
alarm over her disappearance since June 3. One Bernard Ekeka, who is
believed to have seen the unidentified attackers, was also killed.
According to Iwuoha’s 15-year-old daughter, Ugochi, they had earlier
gone to the farm together for weeding and returned home before her
mother decided to return later that day to harvest some crops.
HURIWA is once more charging the Imo State governor and the State House
of Assembly to rapidly pass the anti-open grazing law if there is none
to put to a permanent end the rampaging attacks of armed Fulani herdsmen
just as the Rights group said the Imo State government should seek for
ways of galvanizing a regional approach towards instituting a SOUTH
EASTERN ANTI-OPEN GRAZING LAW and to set up a regional security network
to protect the region from all forms of violent attacks.
Relatedly, HURIWA thinks the National Assembly is not committed to the
fight against sexual violations of youngsters by rapists who are
unleashing venomous attacks on young girls and boys all around the
Country.
“HURIWA is apprehensive that all the noises coming from Abuja about the
issue of combating RAPE and sexual attacks against younger persons by
mostly Men are just cosmetic and artificial wailing of pretenders who
will simply wait for the mass of the citizens to stop talking about
these rape cases in the social media and then the Country returns to the
business as usual default format that it has been for over 60 years. The
National Assembly has the knife and the yam and so why are they crying?
They are the legislators who can look at all the laws relating to sexual
offences and then fundamentally reform this archaic legal framework to
bring it in tandem with the demands of the 21st century compliant
Nigerian nation. The Presidency should stop the public show and the
media showmanship over the cases of RAPE and sexual attacks against
younger persons in Nigeria. If you are in government, your
responsibility is to maintain law and order and punish offenders and not
to cry like little babies when the system seems to have failed our
children by not protecting them from murderous rapists. The Presidency
runs the Police which has failed to prosecute sexual violators. The
Presidency is where the Federal Attorney General and minister of justice
work. Law Reform Commission is located in the Presidency and so why is
the Federal Government not seen activating measures to strengthen the
laws against rapists so as to introduce strong enough sanctions and
legal penalties that would serve as deterrence to the violent rapists
who are running riots all over the country?”