Terrorism: Fulani Herdsmen Should be Given Same Treatment as Boko Haram - Dogara

The Speaker of the House of Represent­atives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has called on security agencies to treat armed Fulani herdsmen and other groups which unleash violence on law-abiding Nigerians as ter­rorists in the mould of the noto­rious Boko Haram sect.
He said that his proposal was not too far from the posi­tion of President Muhammadu Buhari that any Nigerian that acts as a terrorist should be dealt with according to the laws of the land.

Dogara however expressed the fears that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) may lose the 2019 governorship election in Bauchi, his home state, because of the poor per­formance of Governor Moham­med Abubakar.
In an interactive session with some senior editors on Tuesday in Abuja, Dogara said: “For the herdsmen, we have made it very clear and I think the President made it very clear that whether kidnappers, herds­men or whoever commits the act of terrorism, should be grouped as one. Anyone mak­ing war against innocent cit­izens of the country must be dealt with squarely as if he is a terrorist.”
He continued: “I don’t see the distinction between whom­ever (that) is making war against Nigerians or unleash­ing terror on innocent Nigeri­ans. It doesn’t matter their de­scription… So, these are serious security challenges that would be met with the same kind of force shown against Boko Har­am and other terrorists.”
“There is no distinction; Boko Haram makes war against innocent Nigerians, and anyone that makes war against inno­cent Nigerians or takes up arms against the Nation State, wheth­er a kidnapper, avenger, herds­men, they should be squarely dealt with. That is our position as a parliament; we have said it frequently and we will keep re-echoing that,” he reiterated.
The Speaker lamented that Nigeria’s porous land borders have made it difficult for the security agencies to effective­ly monitor the influx of armed herdsmen.
“Unfortunately, what has not helped this issue is the fact that we have an extensive bor­der. If you look at it, how many Customs and Immigration of­ficers do we have? If they were able to join hands and line up across our borders, they wouldn’t even cover a quarter of our borders. And most of these people coming to unleash ter­ror on Nigerians aren’t Nigeri­ans themselves,” he asserted.
On the reported frosty rela­tionship with his home gover­nor, Dogara said that the prob­lem revolved around Governor Abubakar’s decision to deviate from the APC agenda to deliver change to the people of Bauchi State.
“Even though I will never engage in confrontation with the governor, I will never sup­port a situation where we are not delivering the goods. That is just where the problem lies. Anybody who is delivering, who is fulfilling the mandate is my wonderful person. But if you are not doing that, I cannot be a party to it, so that when the destruction comes, as it is certain to come, I’ll be exclud­ed; so that you know that it was not with your consent that this thing happened.”
“That is the problem we are having. It is not a matter of per­sonality clash or people don’t want to work together. I can work with anyone whose agen­da is the welfare and advance­ment of the people, but if it’s not being done, then there’s no point pretending that we are doing anything,” he declared.