Human rights lawyer Femi Falana drags government to court for negligence over Fulani cattle herdsmen

HUMAN rights lawyer and former chairman of the West African Bar Association Femi Falana has dragged the federal government to court over its inaction regarding the ongoing incessant killings by Fulani cattle herdsmen.

Over recent years, Nigeria has been plagued with the menace of herdsmen running riot across the country, pillaging farming communities and murdering hundreds. President Muhammadu Buhari, himself an ethnic Fulani who rears cattle in his hometown of Daura, has been accused of being indifferent to the crisis because he is sympathetic to the herdsmen and has been widely criticised for his inaction.

Last Friday, Mr Falana filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja in which he blamed the incessant killings on government inaction. In his suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/114/2018, he asked the court to declare the incessant killings of innocent persons by the armed herdsmen across the country illegal and unconstitutional.

In addition, the lawyer also asked the court to compel the attorney-general of the federation and justice minister Abubakar Malami and the inspector-general of police Ibrahim Idris, to disarm and prosecute suspected herdsmen who had taken part in the murder of unarmed citizens across the country. He stated that the federal government decided in 2016 to disarm all herdsmen but has failed to do so.

According to Mr Falana, the federal government has failed or refused to establish ranches thereby further and unwittingly encouraging and stoking farmers/herdsmen clashes across Nigeria. He said the House of Representatives recently decided to probe the diversion of the sum of N110bn made available to some state governments for the establishment of ranches but such states refused to establish them.

However, in his response, Mr Malami asked the court to dismiss the suit, contending that the killings were not due to the federal government’s negligence, adding that the human rights lawyer had no evidence to show that the alleged killings were by herdsmen. Mr Malami added in his opposition to the suit that for it to be accepted that persons have been killed as a result of herdsmen activities due to the negligence of the federal government, there must be sufficient evidence and particulars establishing the names of the persons killed, their identities, the cause of death and the negligence of the federal government.

Mr Falana added, however, that between December 2017 and January 2018, Benue State lost 73 people due to violence unleashed on them by armed herdsmen. He pointed out that the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, recently disclosed that over 800 Fulani people were killed by armed militias in Taraba State last year.

“Instead of disarming the AK47-bearing herdsmen and militias who have been terrorising he country, the Department of State Services  has said that foreign terrorists are responsible for the incessant violent clashes between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria,” Mr Falana stated.