He stated that those “turning the truth upside down to portray” the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in a bad light were linking herdsmen to all the killings in some states in the country.
President Buhari has at several times admitted that the on-going killings in parts of Southern Kaduna and Central Nigeria were carried out by Fulani herdsmen in what he calls “clashes between farmers and herdsmen”.
In a meeting with a group of Northern Christians in Aso Rock, the president has also expressed outrage at those who accuse him of supporting the killings because he is of the same tribe with the killer Fulani herdsmen.
On a visit to Benin Republic in July, Buhari downplayed the extent of the crisis and said that displaced farmers are returning home because “calm had returned” to the troubled areas.
A terrorist group known as the Fulani herdsmen militia have been attacking villages the Middle Belt region of Nigeria – namely, Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Adamawa States and Southern Kaduna – leaving a trail of blood and bodies. Most of their victims are Christians – men, women, children, even babies.
Human rights activists say that as many as 8,800 Christians have been murdered by the terrorists since President Muhammadu Buhari came to office in May 2015.
A Washington Post report, in July 2018, says that the Fulani herdsmen terrorism has now surpassed Boko Haram in death toll.
Oshiomhole said this at a rally in Abakaliki on Saturday, August 4, 2018.
The former Edo State governor assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari and security agencies were working hard to end insecurity in the country.
He urged Nigerians not, “to allow themselves to be deceived by the antics of selfish politicians in the country who are trying to give the security challenges in the country an ethnic colouration in order to score cheap political points.”
Oshiomhole noted that the security challenges were a ploy “to portray the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in bad light by portraying all the killings in some states in the country as the handiwork of herdsmen.
“Let me urge you to be more careful because this season, people are spreading untruth. People are being hired to turn the gospel upside down. They want us to believe that every problem should be explained in ethnic and religious terms.
“We have a problem and we must confront those problems. Criminals must be dealt with individually as criminals and government at all levels must work hard to protect every Nigerian regardless of tribe or religion.”
