A former Presidential candidate under the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC, Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa has said the ongoing farmers-herders’ crisis rocking the Southern part of the country may degenerate into full-blown war if President Buhari does not weigh in with State’s security apparatus.
Tofa noted that the eviction order issued to some herdsmen and the subsequent attacks on them by southerners could lead to reprisals in the North if not stopped
In a statement issued in Kano on Tuesday, Tofa warned those he described as “foolish leaders and their stupid hirelings ” in the south to stop stoking the embers of ethnic strife as they, too have their people in the North.
Toga 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 totally unacceptable. There is clearly 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 begun.
‘There is no part of this country that is at peace. Local and neighbouring, including foreign terrorist, 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 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. Those foolish leaders and their stupid hirelings who encourage the expulsion of other Nigerians from their States should remember that their own indigenes also live in other parts. They must stop, or the law should stop them, by all means, necessary,” the former Presidential candidate, Tofa added.
