Herdsmen killings will continue if Buhari is re-elected – Atiku warns

Yesterday, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, said that killings by herdsmen would continue in the country unless President Muhammadu Buhari is voted out of office in 2019.

Atiku said this while reacting to Amnesty International’s report on herdsmen/farmers’ clashes which indicted the Federal Government for failing to stop the killing of 3,641 Nigerians by herdsmen in the last three years.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former Vice- President described the Presidency’s response to the report as “tepid.”

He said, “Unless Nigerians vote out the All Progressives Congress administration, killings by herdsmen will continue and ultimately spark series of ethno-religious crises that will be irreversible.

“It is now very clear, like Amnesty International said in its report, that the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has displayed gross incompetence and has failed in its duty to protect the lives of its people who have witnessed many preventable deaths.

“This situation has put the nation on the verge of disintegration.”

Atiku said the Federal Government lacked the capacity to stop the security challenges confronting the nation which he said had left thousands of Nigerians either killed or maimed.

The killings, he said, were scaring away foreign investors.

He added, ‘’After every attack, either by herdsmen or by kidnappers, the government will vow to get the culprits and punish them. Then more deaths will occur and the government will repeat its vow.

“This is not reassuring to the people of Nigeria as well as foreigners who may want to do business in the country.

“Therefore, it is now clear that in spite of their best efforts, Buhari and his party, the APC, cannot stop the herdsmen and other criminal elements currently terrorising the country.”

Atiku said it was frightening that the Buhari administration was not doing anything in the face of the World Bank’s report that claimed that Nigeria will soon become the world capital of underage deaths.