The presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa, has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently stop attacks on Fulanis in the South-West.
The elder statesman spoke on Tuesday in response to a fresh attack on a Fulani community in Ogun State that led to the killing of a herdsman, burning of a settlement and a market.
The attack in Ogun is said to have been led by a Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, who also recently led an attack against Fulani herders’ community in Oyo State.
The attacks on Fulani herders followed claims that herdsmen have been kidnapping, killing and committing other atrocities in the South-West.
However, in a release entitled ‘Statement of Serious Concern’, Tofa condemned attacks on Fulanis in the South-West, describing it as “unacceptable.”
Tofa said, “The mayhem we see, almost every day now, of killings and maiming of people of Northern extraction, including especially, the Fulani, in some other parts of the country, is unacceptable.
“There is a nefarious plan by the enemies of this potentially great country to initiate a violent crisis that may lead to its destruction.
“Tension is beginning to brew, and if revenge attacks on Southerners begin here in the North, it will be difficult to control. Our enemies from within and outside, some well-known by our security agencies, are more determined than ever to set us against each other, so that we may get to a point of no return when the conflagration began.
“There is no part of this country that is at peace. Local and neighbouring, including foreign terrorists, are busy, fully armed, to cause whatever damage they can inflict on our dear country.
“I, therefore, call on the president to take this insecurity and the tribal lynching happening very seriously and put up urgent measures to deal with them without any more delays. I am sure, there is a concern at the Presidency and discussions are being held. But, urgent and decisive action is now necessary.
“If any Nigerian will not be allowed to live freely and conduct their lives and businesses in any part of the country without being disturbed or molested or even killed, then no one should be allowed to settle and prosper anywhere else.
“If that were to be the case, then, we have no country. That is how serious it is. And that is what our enemies desire. We must not allow them by our inaction.”
On Igboho still insisting that Fulani herders must leave the South-West, Tofa said:
“Those foolish leaders and their stupid hirelings, who encourage the expulsion of other Nigerians from their states, should remember that their people also live in other parts. They must stop, or the law should stop them by all means necessary.”