By Femi Fani-Kayode
The
Department of State Services (DSS) have claimed that five Fulani herdsmen were
abducted, killed and buried in a mass grave by members of Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB), in Abia state a few days ago. They have also claimed that there
were up to fifty more bodies in that mass grave, and that they are all Fulani.
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| *Femi Fani-Kayode |
The implications of this announcement is obvious. It will create more
tension and fear in the land and lead to reprisal killings in the North.
Violence is never the way out and I have always believed that it has no place
in any civilised society. Yet, what I find curious about this announcement is
the fact that it is unique and historic.
I say this because thousands of Igbos, Yorubas, Niger-Deltans and
Middle Belters have been killed by Fulani militants and herdsmen over the last
ten months since President Buhari came to power, yet the DSS has never
announced it and told the country about the details and ethnic identities of
the victims.
When one thousand Shiite Muslims were slaughtered in Zaria
When hundreds of Southern and Middle Belt farms were raided by
AK-47-wielding Fulani herdsmen who murdered, raped, burnt down and took over
the land of their victims, the DSS never gave us details of the victims or made
any announcement.
When our leaders in the South were kidnapped and when men witnessed
their wives and children being raped and butchered by the Fulani militias
before their very eyes, the DSS made no announcements.
When the International Terror Index told the world that the Fulani
militias in Nigeria
Is it so difficult to accept the fact that no government and no force
from hell or on earth can compel or intimidate a man into lying down passively
and silently watching his family, loved ones and kinsmen being butchered and
slaughtered morning, day and night without trying to protect them and without
indulging in some form of retaliation?
