New Telegraph

Politicians using banditry to wage war against Middle Belt –Prof. Turaki

Osinbajo: Insecurity will soon be a thing of the past

A Middle Belt leader and Professor of Theology and Social Ethics, Prof Yusuf Turaki, yesterday accused those in government of using the prevailing insecurity in the country to wage war against his part of the country. Prof. Turaki spoke at a one-day peace and security summit, organised by the Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna on Tuesday.

The Middle Belt leader, who was the keynote speaker at the summit, noted that violence has taken all over the country to the extent that every segment of the society now speaks violence, adding, “Everybody is overwhelmed with violence”.

Turaki also disagreed with politicians who are blaming killings in the Middle Belt on farmers/ herders clash, saying it is a deceptive narrative of what he called a repetition of Sokoto jihadists’ war. According to him: “These are Foreign Fulani who have been allowed to enter Nigeria so that they could help their brothers in Nigeria to kill innocent citizens and wreak havoc on our ancestral lands. “These Fulani occupy the lands, carrying AK47, killing people, destroying communities in the middle belt and other parts of the country. “And the government knows them, and the government pays them to destroy ancestral lands. Politicians know the bandits that enter Nigeria, but they will not tell us.

“Politicians have devised a wrong narrative that is deceptive, saying it is farmers/herders clash in the Middle Belt, if it is a clash, how come Fulani are carrying AK47 to kill the people. “Nigeria is well blessed with intelligent people but they cannot up till today solve insecurity in the country. Something terrible has befallen our country. God, open the mouths of the people, let them speak the truth and die for the truth.

“What the Fulani are doing now is exactly what Sokoto jihadists did in those old days. They kidnapped and asked people to pay ransom in those days. If you cannot pay, they sold you into slavery or killed you. So kidnapping is not different from what happened during the Sokoto jihadists’ war. They captured infidel. It is being repeated now in Nigeria,” he said. In his own speech as the Special Guest of Honour, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo assured that kidnapping, banditry and insecurity would soon become a thing of the past as the country would soon triumph over the situation. The Vice President, who likened Nigeria’s socio-economic problems to that of a woman in a labour room, said after much pain, there will be celebration by the people, when they eventually overcome the hardship.

Read Previous

Senate C’ttee happy with PTAD’s measures on pension challenges

Read Next

Reps approve appointment of Yahaya as COAS

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *