Activists ask Buhari to clear Sambisa Forest for herdsmen

A human rights group, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, to go and clear Sambisa Forest which is the hideout of the Boko Haram sect for Fulani herdsmen to graze their livestock.

The Chairman of CHRSJ, Sulaiman Adeniyi, said this in a statement he made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Sunday.

The group said instead of acquiring land all over the country for grazing, Buhari should clear the Sambisa Forest for herdsmen to graze their animals.

Adeniyi said herdsmen had constituted themselves a threat to the peace of the nation with their atrocities, saying relocating them to Sambisa Forest would be a better alternative rather than starting another crisis with landowners all over the country

The statement read, “The President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government of Nigeria should go and clear the den of Boko Haram sect, popularly called ‘Sambiza Forest’ for its proposed ‘Grazing Reserve Project’ for the Fulani Herdsmen.

“The proposed bill would increase avoidable crisis in the land through the violent resistance across the region of the country. The Fulani herdsmen have become dangerous species across the states of the federation.

“President Buhari should drop the idea of forcing the grazing reserves bill on the states contrary to section 17,18 and 20 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, in order to save the country from imminent violent problem.

“The proposed grazing reserves idea is ill-conceived, illegal, unconstitutional, self-serving, retrogressive, day-light robbery and time bomb which is capable of igniting monumental crisis across the length and breadth of the nation.”

The group called on politicians and international community to prevail on the President to drop the idea, saying it might spark another crisis which would be difficult to solve.

The group also applauded the Amnesty International for exposing
the high rates of alleged human rights abuses of the nation’s security agents in the war against Boko Haram sect,

Adeniyi stressed that Nigeria had lost thousands of civilians because of the alleged excessiveness of the military in the North-eastern part of Nigeria.