Following the recent surge in killings in some parts of the country, the southern and middle-belt leaders, SMBLF, have called on Nigerians to defend themselves against ‘killer herdsmen'.
A statement issued by the groups under the umbrella of Afenifere, PANDEF, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and the Middle-belt Forum, said the territorial expansion tactics of the armed herders should be resisted by all means.
According to the leaders of the groups, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, Amb. Godknows Igali, Dr Bitrus Pogu and Sen. John Azuta-Mbata, the lackadaisical attitude of the federal government towards the killings signposted tacit approval.
The group stated that the people must stop lamenting but instead confront and liberate themselves from the armed herders, stressing that the killings in various parts of the country can best be described as genocide.
“The planned, coordinated and unrelenting genocidal massacre by suspected Fulani militias in various communities across Nigeria, particularly Plateau and Benue states, has pushed all patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians beyond the threshold of mourning.
“These terrorist killings wiping out entire families and villages hypocritically branded “farmers/herders clash”; on the farmers’ land have become so commonplace that officials of the Nigerian state on each occurrence only indulge in comparative statistical analysis of the number of lives lost.
“To the people: Rise, stop mourning and lamentation; organise according to your respective cultural and indigenous ways of community defence, seek necessary capacity wherever possible and available.
“If our people were not conquered before Nigeria, we would not allow Nigeria to subject us to destruction and slavery. Take back every inch of your land now. In the face of the failure of the Nigerian state to protect you, all acts and weapons in self-defence are lawful and legitimate. Together, we will resist. Together, we will defend. Together, we will survive. Enough is enough.”
