The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has reacted to Sheikh Gumi’s statement referring to killer herdsmen and Bandits as Militants fighting for ethnic survival. The reaction was contained in a press statement issued by PANDEF’s Natiknal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson in Port Harcourt today. Find the full text below:
It is unfortunate that the nation should be hearing one absurd statement or the other from this man, every day. It is high time that the media stopped giving him attention. He is nothing other than an eccentric bigot; a leader of marauders and murderers, dressed in cleric’s toga.
It is vexing that he would have the effrontery to say killer Herdsmen and the murderous Bandits should not be referred to as criminals but “militants fighting an ethnic war and fighting for their existence”. What nonsense? In a hitherto illustrious country reduced to, almost, a Lilliputian Republic by a Fulani president.
Recall that this same Gumi had said the federal government is aware of the locations of these bandits terrorising Citizens, and even went on to blatantly demand amnesty for the bandits.
Nigeria has never experienced the kind of nepotism and prejudice being perpetrated under the Buhari administration.
Virtually all strategic positions in the nation’s Public Sector, including the military, paramilitary and intelligence agencies, are firmly under Hausa-Fulani Hegemony.
Oil blocks and marginal fields in the Niger Delta have ever been mostly exploited by northerners. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has become a “grazing” ground for a few.
In the last five years or so, several eminent Nigerians, including patriotic northerners, have spoken against the skewed and lopsided nature of appointments by Mr. President.
As we speak, PANDEF national leader and Distinguished Elder Statesman, Chief Dr. Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and 15 other eminent Nigerians are in Court over the several violations of the Federal Character Act.
But the administration continues to play deaf and dumb to the protestations and genuine concerns put forward by well-meaning Nigerians, in the interest of the Peace and Unity of the country.
Look at the recent appointments made by the President for the headship of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC; the Nigerian Correctional Service, formerly Nigerian Prison Service, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
And in the face of these irking circumstances, a so-called Sheikh Gumi could imagine asserting that killer herders and bandits are fighting for their ethnic survival. It then becomes necessary to reckon that the rest of Nigeria needs to be on the alert.
