Herdsmen killings: War looms in Nigeria – Amnesty Int’l warns Buhari govt

Director of Amnesty International, Osai Ojigho, gave the warning on Thursday during her appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily. Ojigho is worried that the recent attacks by suspected herdsmen on some communities in Benue State and those recorded in other parts of the country might get out of hand if not tackled squarely. “We are really reaching a boiling point of total anarchy,” she said. “If you are to look at how things are developing, there’s a lot of anger from different affected communities and including those who actually are bearing the brunt of losing family members at this time of the year. “We’ve been following the incessant killings that have been happening in this sort of clashes throughout last year and, of course, at the beginning of the year we woke up to experience another wave at an escalating level that we never thought would get to this point”, she said. Amnesty International lamented that the governments at both federal and state levels are only doing little to address the issue. The human rights group has asked them to ensure the perpetrators of the killings are arrested and made to face the wrath of the law. “For us, what is really shocking is that we are yet to find a concrete response by government whether it’s at federal level or state level in terms of ensuring that those that are perpetuating these killings are arrested, are prosecuted, and actually the course of justice is allowed to proceed without any sort of fear or favour,” Ojigho said.]]>