A former presidential
spokesperson, Dr. Doyin Okupe has revealed that those responsible for incessant
herdsmen killings in some parts of the country are not from Nigeria.
Okupe said that those responsible
for the killings are a breakaway faction of Boko Haram that had actually teamed
up with ISIS, noting that the killings were no longer a case of farmers/Fulani
herdsmen clash.
The former presidential
spokesman, speaking with Tribune, agreed with President Muhammadu Buhari on the
premise that herdsmen responsible for killings in Nigeria were trained in
Libya.
Recall that Buhari
had during his bilateral meeting with Donald Trump mentioned that herdsmen do
not carry guns but only wielded sticks, and occasionally machetes.
He reiterated that the death of
Gaddafi aggravated herdsmen crisis in Nigeria.
Okupe said: “Every sane Nigerian
must be worried. I am more than worried. In fact, I’m perplexed. Something
profoundly evil is going on in the country. The bloodletting is too much. The
frequency and viciousness of the attack is confounding.
“What is more perplexing is that
we cannot really see the efforts by the government to counter this evil. I have
said it to many people and on my social media platforms that this is beyond
Fulani herdsmen and farmers clashes. I may be wrong and may be right. It no
longer makes sense to assume that.
“I don’t think President
Muhammadu Buhari was too much out of order—-perhaps he didn’t put it well when
he said these are people trained by Muamar Ghadaffi. What he probably had meant
to say was that people that were trained in Libya had come down and are
wrecking havoc in our system. That would have been more credible.
“There is also a shade of opinion
that what we are seeing is a breakaway faction of Boko Haram that has actually
teamed up with ISIS. The signature we are seeing in these attacks is mindless
killings, arson and massive destruction. This is so typical of ISIS operations.
It is better for us as Nigerians and those who lead us to come to terms with
this reality. They will not want to sound alarmed that we are not through with
Boko Haram yet and we now have ISIS, which may bring panic.
“Let us speak the truth and let
the devil be ashamed. We have ISIS operating in Nigeria and it is another form
of extreme Islamic fundamentalism in a very vicious and dangerous form.
” If you look at it, Boko Haram
is located in the North East and not going beyond the zone. But if you see what
is going on now, we have some very serious attacks in Benue, Jos, Kaduna,
Zamfara, Kano, Kogi, Edo and Ekiti. That is no longer Fulani herdsmen attack.
“By my own understanding, the
Fulani herdsman is very protective of his herds. He overreaches himself in the
provision of food and water for the herds. I don’t see a Fulani man after
having fed his cows, burning the farm in which the cows have eaten and going to
the villagers that own the farms to kill and burn them. It doesn’t make any
sense. That has gone beyond tendering cattle. It is something that is beyond 400-500
years. It has been from the time we existed here.
“These Fulani go around West
Africa with their cattle in search of food and water. They metamorphosed into
armed militias. If strange, it is not in conformity with what we have. And it
is a misnomer to say there is a Fulani /farmers clash. A clash is when one
group fights another. No farmer is clashing with herdsmen here.
“Unfortunately, the government is headed by a
Fulani and tends to protect the image of other Fulanis that they are not
killers. But there is no need to protect what is not true. If there is anything
to protect, it should be the lives and properties of Nigerians. Impression is
being given that it’s Fulani people that are involved in the mayhem. So
government must try as much as possible to remove this toga.”
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