Politics
HURIWA condemns Malami for comparing spare parts sale to open grazing
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has slammed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) over his comments comparing the sale of spare parts in the North to the ban of open grazing in the South.
Malami’s comments had drawn the ire of political stakeholders with the Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu challenging the AGF to court over the legality of the ban.
Corroborating this stance in its statement issued on Thursday by its President Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA noted that “these two items are incomparable because whilst one is sold in an organised shopping mall by traders who pay rents and taxes to state government, cows that are openly grazed violently invade farm lands and have often caused destructions to farms.”
The group further slammed the AGF for trivialising the concerns of farmers who has repeatedly bemoaned the activities of some herders, resulting in the destruction of their farms and its attendant clashes.
“We are not in any way shocked that Malami, a Fulani-born lawyer and politician, has attacked southern governors for taking practical steps to checkmate the rampant invasions of farms in the south by armed Fulani herdsmen.
Read also: HURIWA accuses FIRS of witch-hunt for imposing taxes in alleged attempt to silence criticism
“It does appear that a federal attorney general does not understand the laws in such a way that he is mixing up animal rights and human rights.
“The Minister of Justice of President Muhammadu Buhari is unaware that the fundamental human rights provisions enshrined in the Nigerian constitution are not animal rights, which is why they are classified as human and not animal rights.
“That the Justice Minister of Nigeria now speaks for armed Fulani herdsmen is an unmitigated scandal, nevertheless not very strange to us because of our personal experience in a written exchanges with Malami recently.
“The same minister had written to us a response saying his office had not prosecuted any alleged armed Fulani herdsmen responsible for the many massacres around Nigeria since 2015 because government had no case file on the herdsmen killing farmers.”
By Mayowa Oladeji…
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...