By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to arrest and prosecute the Fulani herdsmen killing farmers across Nigeria.
ASUU in a statement made available to newsmen in Ibadan by its University of Ibadan Chairman, Dr Deji Omole declared that President Buhari should henceforth go beyond mere condemning the killings by Fulani herdsmen
According to ASUU, “the new year killings in some part of the country while the President was telling Nigerians that it has beaten Boko Haram should be rejected by all Nigerians”
“The time has come for all to rise and call on the government to fulfil her duties of protection of lives and properties or quit if it cannot do this. The government that wants people to go into agriculture but fold its arms when farmers are killed is not only irresponsive but also irresponsible”, he said.
ASUU maintained that “we have now added to the internally displaced profile of people in Nigeria.”, saying, ” the problem is that the survivors are embittered that their government cannot protect them but prefers to set up campaign team for 2019 general elections.”
The union emphasized that there is the need for the Federal government to pay compensation for victims that lost their properties and relations in Rivers, Benue and Kwara states, which according to ASUU was as a result of ” the rising insecurity profile under the present administration shows a faulty security architecture and policy.”
“All victims must be compensated and all governors must visit the victims the way they all stormed Abuja to greet the son of the president who is hospitalised. If the son of the president is fortified with security meant for over 1,000 people even in hospital, it shows that the ruling class does not value the lives of ordinary Nigerians. ”
ASUU lamented that it was unfortunate that the faulty security architecture and policy in the country was “a sign of irresponsibility on the part of the Buhari led federal government not to have tamed the ravaging killer-herdsmen”.
Lamenting that Nigeria will suffer when farmers are killed at-will, the union said ” the consequences of killing farmers is food insecurity,”
“The president is building a dangerous trend where citizens will rise to defend themselves by taking up arms since they are not protected by the state. The Buhari government who claimed to have special interest in agriculture has failed security competency test to protect vulnerable farmers in indigenous areas of Nigeria.”
