The leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF), Chief Edwin Clark, and other leaders, have condemned the killings in the middle belt, saying that it is a threat to the existence of Nigeria, News About Nigeria reports.
The leaders expressed their feelings about the incessant killings to President Bola Tinubu in a letter on Tuesday, urging him to take immediate action towards putting an end to the destruction of lives and properties going on in the region.
They noted that the continuous massacre by terrorists in the Middle Belt and most parts of Northern Nigeria by identified ethnic militias is proof that the government has failed in its responsibility to secure the lives and properties of Nigerians as stipulated in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
They called on the President to step into the situation, maintaining that he must do away with the thought that the people from the north-west are of the same tribes and religion and therefore should not be fighting among themselves.
They maintained that the north-west geopolitical zone remains the most diverse zone in the country, adding that the war is a result of the desire for new territorial spaces for the Fulani both within and outside Nigeria against the other ethnic nationalities, especially the Hausa majority, which has for ages been falsely touted as being indistinguishable from the Fulani.
They further noted that the Fulani ethnic nationality has, since 2018, been declared by Amnesty International as the 4th most deadly terrorist organisation in the world.
The leaders stressed that the Tinubu-led administration has cloaked the evil ways of these people, who are backed by organised and well-armed militias, under herders’ and farmers’ clashes.
They therefore call on the President to hold an honest security inquiry, to ascertain whether the original inhabitants have been displaced in the last two decades and enforce the immediate return and resettlement of the people in their ancestral homes.
