{"id":17598,"date":"2018-01-20T04:29:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T04:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=17598"},"modified":"2018-01-20T04:29:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T04:29:31","slug":"benueshiites-killings-this-government-has-contempt-for-human-lives-falana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=17598","title":{"rendered":"BENUE\/SHIITES KILLINGS: “THIS GOVERNMENT HAS CONTEMPT FOR HUMAN LIVES”- FALANA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), has claimed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration knows the identity of the suspected Fulani Herdsmen carrying out incessant killings in the country but is lackadaisical about bring them to book.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Falana, who appeared on Channel TV\u2019s \u2018Sunrise Daily\u2019 on Friday, slated the current government, which prides itself in cracking down on Boko Haram and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), for allegedly lacking the will to fight the \u201ckiller\u201d herdsmen.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When asked if he thinks those carrying out the herdsmen killings are militias from outside the country, the human rights lawyer said:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe government and security forces know those who are carrying out these attacks. Since the colonial regime, since 1914, this is the first time in the history of our country that any group would go around terrorising citizens with Ak47 rifles and they have not been crushed by this state.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis regime, the Buhari administration declares a war on insecurity. It prides itself as having tamed terrorism in the country. It crushed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). In the Niger Delta, a war has been waged against the militants.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cSo why are these guys (Fulani Herdsmen) allowed to go around killing people? Whether they are Nigerians or foreigners, you just giving the impression that the Nigerian State has failed or collapse. \u201cThe government anywhere in the world must monopolise violence. It is the government that has the monopoly of violence and when you give that monopoly to a band of criminal elements, it means the government has failed.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Falana also slammed the constitution of a committee by the National Economic Council (NEC) to look into the herdsmen crisis.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He said, \u201cWith profound respect to members of the National Economic Council (NEC), I think we are chasing the shadow as a people and the government is simply parading Nigerians as a bunch of jokers. It is not rocket science to solve this problem.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI am now bothered when leaders come out to make statements that gives the impression that we are rather out to cover up serious criminality. The killing of human of any human in any part of the world is a serious matter.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Asked if the government doesn\u2019t need a committee to solve the Fulani Herdsmen menace, Falana said:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cNo! A committee to do what? For heaven\u2019s sake a committee to do what, to find out how many people have been killed? Or to establish the fact that we have been in this problem for five years and nobody is addressing the problem?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIn 2012, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), about 1, 229 people were killed. In 2014 we lost about 1,300 people. In Benue State alone, between 2013 and 2016, about 1800 people were killed. And this government about knew this problem before it came on board. It was part of its campaign. And this government upon its inauguration has repeatedly maintained that the only solution to the incessant violent clashes between farmers and herdsmen is to establish ranches in the country.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Falana equally slammed Nigeria\u2019s Agric Minister for allegedly confusing the citizens with the cattle colonies term.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He said, \u201cThe Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, had until recently, almost shouted himself hoarse (that ranching was the solution).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cNow when you ask Ogbeh that what you mean by cattle colonies, he confuses Nigerians. According to him, cattle colonies would mean a group of ranches. Why then are you using the term cattle colonies? It is as if you are giving the impression in a tensed atmosphere that you want to colonise certain parts of the country. It is so nonsensical. The government is not taking Nigerians seriously.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Asked of his opinion on why the N100 billion voted under the previous administration for the establishment of cattle ranches were allegedly diverted, he said:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cYou have to help us as the media to trace the fund. The central bank has got to confirm to whom the fund was given to. Because this is why we are in a mess. Now we are simply engaging in diversion. We are either blaming Fulani herdsmen or some traditional rulers for making comments. These people are just deceiving us.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On if he would support the profiling of the \u201ckiller\u201d herdsmen as terrorists? Falana responded:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe bottom line is that Nigerian governments including the Buhari administration have contempt for the human rights of our people. The right to life is the most basic fundamental right because you need to be alive to enjoy other rights.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cSo why are we trying to single out killings by the bandits. In this country, in December 2017, the Nigerian Army killed 347 Shiites. They were Nigerians yet no post-mortem exercise was conducted. The Army and the Kaduna State government buried the dead bodies in a secrete grave. Nobody has been brought to book for this.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAlso, nobody has been arrested for the Benue killings. We are now being told that 90 people have been arrested but none will be charged to court. So when you have an atmosphere of reckless impunity promoted by the government, what do you expect?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cJust last weekend, I had the cause to call the National Security Adviser (NSA), one Maj.-Gen. [Mohammed Babagana] Monguno. I told him that I am under pressure from around the world to look for twelve Cameroonians that were abducted by security forces in Nigeria over two weeks ago. He said I could come to Abuja to visit them. So I travelled to Abuja but this gentleman refused to pick my calls. For two days I was in a hotel. Then I asked myself, even under the defunct military junta people don\u2019t go through this.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), has claimed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration knows the identity of the suspected Fulani Herdsmen carrying out incessant killings in the country but is lackadaisical about bring them to book. \u00a0 Falana, who appeared on Channel TV\u2019s \u2018Sunrise Daily\u2019 on Friday, slated the current government, which prides itself in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[2011,902,1490,4468,201],"class_list":["post-17598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-audu-ogbeh","tag-fulani-herdsmen","tag-ipob","tag-mohammed-babagana-monguno","tag-niger-delta"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/femi-falana.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-4zQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17600,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions\/17600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}