Calls Tinubu to withdraw military in S/East, S/South, S/West, M/belt but deploy trackers, detectives

From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has said that the former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari allegedly instituted over 50 mostly Government-linked armed groups since 2015.

The group said the action led to issuance of the alleged Commander in Chief’s above the law license on Fulani Herdsmen and the operational death code to military and police chiefs in Eastern Nigeria.

The Intersociety in it’s recent special
investigation report signed by its Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi said the action of former president brought about unchecked insecurity and other unsafe conditions in Nigeria’s six regions of North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-West, South-South and South-East.

The Intersociety, led by criminologists, lawyers and security and peace studies’ experts had also in its detailed investigations found that the number of armed groups in Nigeria had risen from 3 as at May 2015 to 50 as at July 2023.

“Intersociety hereby calls on the present Government of Nigeria and its Commander-in-Chief to urgently do and act as follows: total reversal and discontinuation of “the above the law license” on Fulani Jihadists and State Jihadism, issuance of new C-in-C/Govs’ policy directions to checkmate and stamp out Fulani Jihadists/Jihadism, withdrawal of the military from S/E, S/S, S/W and M/B Roads and deployment of trackers and detectives, immediate reversal of C-in-C’s operational death code in the East and overhauling of the military, police, DSS, discontinuation of Nnamdi Kanu’s trial, his release and placement on guided freedom of movement/assembly Enugu, Eastern Nigeria Tuesday, 18th July 2023.

According to the report “it must be remembered that Nigeria was home to three major jihadist armed opposition groups in May 2015 including Boko Haram, ANSARU (Movement for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa) and Fulani Herdsmen militias.

Also as at May 2015, the Fulani Herdsmen militias were at their second stage of transformation into ‘National
Islamic Jihadist Insurgency’. The period (2015) also saw the “Zamfara Bandits” as a local Fulani militant group
formed in 2011 in Maradum, Zamfara State over rift with indigenous Hausa Muslim population and their Vigilante
(“Yan-Sai-Kai”).

“The full transformation of the Fulani Herdsmen and Zamfara Fulani Bandits into clandestinely State-backed “National Jihadist Armies” akin to Sudan’s Janjaweed took place in early 2016; same year the strongly suspected military-protected Fulani Jihadist incursions into South-West, South-South, South-East and Middle-Belt forests, bushes and farmlands began across Nigeria under the cover of “Operations Python Dance, Crocodile Tears, etc.”

“It must be reminded that all the Jihadist groups in Nigeria have since June 2020 formed alliances against Nigerian Christians and indigenous Hausa Muslim and Christian populations. Through former President Buhari’s alleged “C-in-C’s above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen”, the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen became an outlaw and untouchable-and hardly got arrested and brought to book for massacring thousands of defenseless Nigerians as a result of their religion and ethnicity.

“There was also ‘systematic and organized intra faith attacks
against indigenous Hausa Muslims and other non Fulani Muslims especially in Kebbi, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina,
Niger, etc. Properties especially dwelling houses and sacred places of worship and learning belonging to Christians
were also burned down or wantonly destroyed-with the security forces turning blind eyes or offering “medicine after-death services.”

The shocking aspect of the above is that the alleged Buhari’s C-in-C’s “above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and the operational death code to security forces and their chiefs in the East (culminating in class criminalization and false labeling and their attendant mass atrocities) have remained in force
till date.

“Intersociety had in the course of its detailed investigations found it difficult to locate official records showing the
number of the arrested, investigated and prosecuted and sentenced Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen anywhere in the country since 2015. The Buhari’s era ‘C-in-C’s above the law license’ on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen was further found to have made it a common practice within the security establishments to conceal the identities of the Fulani Jihadists when caught in atrocious acts; to the extent that the beginning of wisdom for survived victims of their jihadist attacks seeking for investigations is to use third party identities such as “unknown gunmen or hoodlums or bandits or IPOB/ESN terrorists as those that masterminded kidnappings or armed robberies and other violent attacks against their persons or properties. These must be done or complied with so as to receive investigative attentions which usually end up yielding nothing. To mention Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen as culprits instantly closes or brings such investigations to abrupt end. Identified in the course of our detailed investigations as part of Buhari’s alleged C-in-C’s “above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen” are indiscriminate purchases of lands in Eastern Nigeria by proxies for purpose of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen settlements and their Jihadist incursions and atrocities.

“The controversial land purchases have been secretly traced to the leaders of the MACABAN or Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria and the FUNAM or Fulani Nationality Movement. The former Buhari’s Government is also strongly suspected to be involved.
The most shocking aspect of the MACABAN and its jihadist Fulani Herdsmen’s controversial land purchases is the strongly suspected complicity of the drafted military and other security chiefs in the East and some greedy political actors and community leaders including but not limited to traditional rulers, local government chairmen and top sub-national government functionaries. The drafted military and other security chiefs in the East are strongly suspected to be the enforcers of the Fulani land purchases or violent grabbing; done using threats of blackmail, force and invasion.

“It was also found by Intersociety that the drafted military chiefs use “IPOB/ESN terrorism” as a cover to invade various communities to camouflage/disguise their real motives of forcing the victim-communities to release their ancestral lands to MACABAN and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. Refusal by leaders of such communities end up attracting false labeling or group criminalization including being labeled or tagged “rogue traditional rulers providing training grounds or using their palaces for “IPOB/ESN training camps, etc”. Several Eastern communities have come under attack or invasion by the drafted military and police operatives and their commanders using “missing Fulani cows” or “killing and abduction of Fulani cows” as a cover.

“Intersociety is therefore compelled by the above to believe that the drafted military personnel and police crack
squads attach utmost importance to the lives of Muslim cows than lives and properties of defenseless Eastern
population or citizens. Several cases in point abound including but not limited to the communities of Ohafia clans
including Ebem and Amangwu Ohafia in Abia State, Agwa, Izombe and Okigwe clans in Imo State, Umunneochi,
Leru, Lokpanta, and Isuikwuato clans in Abia State; Awgu, Akpawfu and its neighboring communities in Nkanu East
of Enugu State; likewise Nimbo, Eha-Amufu, Eke, Udi, Ugwuogo-Nike and Opi-Nsukka clans in Enugu State; Ishiagu
clans and others in Ebonyi State; and communities in Awka North, Awka South, Orumba North and Orumba South
in Anambra State.

“The most shocking aspect is that out of the Nigeria’s 923,000 square kilometers of landmass, over 700,000 are located in the North, out of which Niger State alone accounts for 76,000 square kilometers which is three times larger than the total landmass of the South-East; measuring 29,525 square kilometers.

“Our clarion calls, it is extremely important to note that the cardinal aim of our (Intersociety) detailed investigations and their findings is to thoroughly unmask the breeders and triggers of insecurity and other unsafe conditions running riot on Nigeria or any part thereof and pushing the country steadily on the path of genocide and other forms of complex humanitarian emergencies. Apart from seeking to expose the breeders and triggers of the country’s ongoing insecurity and other unsafe conditions, Intersociety’s detailed investigations also sought for solutions
capable of engendering ‘negative peace’ or making the country relatively peaceful within the context of peaceful
coexistence, ethnic and religious tolerance and cohabitation especially with regard to right to Freedom of Religion, Worship or Belief,” Umeagbalasi stated.

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