A coalition of 40 female civil society groups under the aegis of Women Situation Room in the South East, has protested the rampant killings across the country which they said affect women and children.
The group therefore called on the Nigerian government to set up a commission to look into the armed herders killings with a view to profferring lasting and just solutions.
In a protest to Enugu State House of Assembly yesterday where they submitted their demands to the Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Edward Ubosi, coordinator of the group, Mrs Blessing Duru said they want to increase women’s substantive participation in conflict prevention and peace building process.
Duru said the protest was in solidarity with communities experiencing armed conflict, wanton killings and other human degradations.
She said: “Women of Nigeria and indeed most of the populace are shocked and saddened by the tragic and inhumane killings of citizens and destruction of properties across Nigeria. “The upsurge of violence against Nigerian citizens with women and children bearing the brunt of the casualties and sufferings has become a major source of concern that needs to be addressed urgently.”
They carried placards that read: “Peace means absence of violence”; “Government should act”; “stop the killings”; and “say no to killings,” among other inscriptions.
Addressing the women, the House of Assembly Speaker, Ubosi told them that the House had passed laws that protect women and children and urged them to always support one another.
He promised that the House would do all it could to help bring to an end, the killings across Nigeria.
However, elder statesman and member of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Benjamin Apugo, has urged state governors and heads of security agencies in the country to be proactive in checking clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the federation.
In an interview with Vanguard, Apugo who described the killings as regrettable, said the blame on the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari was uncalled for as the president cannot send somebody to kill those who will vote for him.
He charged the state governors to partner security agencies to avert crises, instead of complaining when the damage had been done and people killed.
He said: “The killings are too much but when you at look at the states, they have their governors.;they have their security men who should be able to look into the problem.
If these types of complaints come, the governors should quickly go in and intervene, not when the damage has been done, they will start to cry.
These people are saying we lost our cows. State governors should be proactive in security situations. The security chiefs should be able to look at the places of leakages and stop them.”
On the 2019 general elections, Apugo explained that the APC in Abia state has been repositioned to produce the next governor of the state and accused some APC faithful of secretly working with Gov Okezie Ikpeazu.
Meanwhile, following the numerous killings in various parts of Nigeria, an Igbo group, Voice from the East, VEAST, has given herdsmen in the five states of the South East as well as Anioma in Delta State and Ikwere in Rivers State till August 31, 2018 to vacate their land and forests.
According to the group which embarked on a peaceful protest yesterday in Enugu, should the armed herdsmen fail to leave after the ultimatum, they would mobilise boys to comb forests and lands to send them packing “because we are no longer comfortable with the killings.
“We carried out this demonstration for the sole purpose of giving quit notice to herdsmen in Igboland, the five South Eastern states as well as Anioma and Ikwerre land. “The killings by herdsmen purposely unchecked by Federal Government and military instigated this quit notice.
“At Ezi Nze in UDI Local Government Area of Enugu State, herdsmen kidnapped several young men, demanding N2 million compensation for purported killing of undisclosed number of cows out of which N600,000 has been paid.
“VEAST sees this as an affront of the highest order which can no longer be tolerated in Igbo land. “After 31st August, 2018, since nobody holds the monopoly of violence, VEAST will galvanise young men from all Igboland to enter Igbo forests to chase out herdsmen,” he said.
Source:Vanguard
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