The Minority leader in the 9th Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, on Monday, condemned President Muhammadu Buhari for his approach towards the herdsmen crisis across the country.
The lawmaker while speaking on Channels TV, noted that the reaction of Buhari seems to have increased the activities of criminal herdsmen.
He said, “The President needs to come out and say I do not support these types of actions, these criminal elements, he has to come out and everybody sees that he is owning this problem.”
“We have never heard it, where did the President ever say that these criminal herdsmen will never be tolerated in this country? What we’ve heard from 2016 all the way down is ‘live in peace with your neighbour’ and ‘try to accommodate your countrymen’ and stuff of that nature.”
“And that now enables those who are committing these crimes, that there is no punishment.”
“And when you see the rest of the country, eruptions here and there, all targetted at a particular segment of people, you should be very worried. And why you should be very worried is, what is it that gives these people the impetus to continue to commit these crimes?”
In a related development, the presidency on Monday reiterated that Fulani herdsmen identified to be criminals will not be treated with kid’s gloves but would face the full wrath of the law.
The assurance was given by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu who noted that work is in progress to curb the activities of the criminals which has caused the crisis in many parts of the country.