Amnesty
International has warned the Nigerian government to be proactive in
addressing the clashes between herdsmen and farmers to prevent the
breakdown of law and order.
Director
of Amnesty International, Osai Ojigho, gave the warning on Thursday
during her appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
Ojigho
is worried that the recent attacks by suspected herdsmen on some
communities in Benue State and those recorded in other parts of the
country might get out of hands if not tackled squarely.
“We
are really reaching a boiling point of total anarchy,” she said. “If
you are to look at how things are developing, there’s a lot of anger
from different affected communities and including those who actually are
bearing the brunt of losing family members at this time of the year.”
“We’ve
been following the incessant killings that have been happening in this
sort of clashes throughout last year and, of course, at the beginning of
the year we woke up to experience another wave at an escalating level
that we never thought would get to this point,” she added.
The
Federal Government had said it was determined to holistically address
the clashes which it said have become a major national concern.
“The
government is very very concern about the herdsmen and farmers clashes
and they are receiving attention at the highest level,” the Minister of
Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, had said on Wednesday.
The
Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, had also arrived in
Benue on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari, while the Nigerian
Army had deployed special forces to protect vulnerable communities in
Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states.
Amnesty
International, however, insisted that the governments at both federal
and state levels are only doing little to address the issue.
The
human rights group has asked them to ensure the perpetrators of the
killings are arrested and made to face the wrath of the law.
“For
us, what is really shocking is that we are yet to find a concrete
response by government whether it’s at federal level or state level in
terms of ensuring that those that are perpetuating these killings are
arrested, are prosecuted, and actually the course of justice is allowed
to proceed without any sort of fear or favour,” Ojigho said.
Channels Television
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