Northern Inter-Faith Clerics Demand Tinubu Immediate Arrest Ex-Govs Bafarawa, Yerima, Citing Fulani Bandit Kingpin Bello Turji Accusations
Following a video in which notorious bandit kingpin, Bello Turji, blamed the escalating banditry in the North-West on policies introduced by former governors Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto and Ahmed Sani Yerima of Zamfara, President Bola Tinubu has been asked to order the arrest and prosecution of the two ex-governors.
A coalition of inter-faith religious leaders in northern Nigeria, Concerned Northern Inter-Faith Clergy for Peace, made the call in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.
The clerics, in the statement signed by Bishop Sunday Bawa, Imam Sheikh Yusuf Sarki, Bishop Pius Dauda and others, said the two ex-governors bear responsibility for laying the foundations of the rampant Fulani banditry bedeviling the North-West.
The clerics cited the video released by Turji, in which Bafarawa and Yerima were accused of seizing and selling vast grazing reserves designated for herders and arming vigilante groups, known as Yan Banga.
The Yan Banga were alleged to have targeted Fulani communities in the North-West. The video noted that the actions of the governors sparked ethnic tensions, leading to cycles of reprisal attacks that escalated to the current wave of kidnappings, massacres and cattle rustling.
“Even though Turji is a confessed terrorist, we cannot ignore his words,” the clerics said, noting that the allegations point to deep-rooted issues of land dispossession and armed vigilantism that allowed criminal gangs to evolve into monsters that now torment the region.
The inter-faith body, comprising imams, pastors, bishops, and other spiritual leaders, expressed solidarity with bereaved families who have also petitioned President Tinubu for an investigation into the claims.............Me:The real terrorists are walking free while an innocent man is languishing in Sokoto prison..What an irony--Uchebest Eric
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