The Senate spokesman, Ajibola Basiru, says Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), has no business occupying his office for equating the activities of nomadic herdsmen destroying peoples’ means of livelihood with others legitimately “carrying on businesses by selling spare parts in their shops stands logic on its head”.
He adds “Anyone who cannot rise above primordial sentiments and pursue a parochial ethnic agenda need not occupy a position of trust especially at this time of sectional agitations,” he said.
“It was not dignifying of the status of the nation’s attorney-general and minister of justice to make such remarks.
“Those who have no meaningful contributions to national discourse operating on the basis of equity and justice to keep quiet and stop rubbishing the Buhari-led APC government.
“These kind of statements have made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of Nations and they ridicule the administration of President Buhari. These statements are not giving hope to those at the receiving end of the activities of the herdsmen.”
Also, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), in a statement, said it was a fallacy and an irredeemable illogicality for Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Alhaji Abubakar Malami to compare the ban on open grazing of cows in the South to ban in the sell of vehicular spare parts in the North.
“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”.
HURIWA, which faulted the AGF for criticising Southern governors for banning open grazing, stated that: “We are not in any way shocked that the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar 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. 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 but nevertheless not very strange to us because of our personal experience in a written exchanges with the Federal Attorney General and MinisterofJustice Abubakar Malami recently.”
“This is because, the same minister had written to us a response saying his office has not prosecuted any alleged armed Fulani herdsmen responsible for the many massacres around Nigeria since 2015 because according to Malami, government has no case file on this herdsmen killing farmers.”
HURIWA recalled vividly that Abubakar Malami says the resolve to ban open grazing by southern governors is equivalent to prohibiting spare parts trading in the north.
The Rights group recalled that last Tuesday, southern governors resolved to ban open grazing and the movement of cattle by foot, after a meeting in Asaba, Delta state just as the resolutions of the southern governors have been greeted with mixed reactions from different parts of the country.
Speaking on the development on Wednesday in an interview on Channels Television, Malami faulted the decision of the southern governors, saying it does not align with the provisions of the constitution.
The attorney-general said the decision “does not hold water” in the context of human rights as enshrined in the constitution.
“It is about constitutionality within the context of the freedoms expressed in our constitution. Can you deny the rights of a Nigerian?” he queried.
“For example: it is as good as saying, perhaps, maybe, the northern governors coming together to say they prohibit spare parts trading in the north.
“Does it hold water? Does it hold water for a northern governor to come and state expressly that he now prohibits spare parts trading in the north?”
Reacting to the justice minister’s outburst HURIWA said it was not surprised because the minister had categorically expressed lack of interest in prosecting armed Fulani herdsmen.
Malami stated this in a document with reference number: MJ/LIT/ABJ/HRWAN/440/2020, dated October 7, 2020 that he wouldn’t prosecute armed Fulani herdsmen because there is no case file.
The AGF document, which was signed by the Acting Director, Civil Litigation and Public Law Department, Mrs. Maimuna Shiru on behalf of the minister, was in response to a letter written by an Abuja-based civil rights organisation, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria.
HURIWA had in a letter signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, asked the minister to prosecute “armed Fulani killers.”
However, the minister in his reply claimed the cases in question had no case files and as such he could not prosecute them.
In his reply to a request by the civil rights group’s demand for the prosecution of the suspects, the minister instructed an acting director in the ministry to write, “I am directed by the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 13, 2020, on the above subject matter and to inform you that your letter has been noted.
“I am further directed to inform your office that the alleged crimes cannot be prosecuted without case files. Please, accept the assurances of the best regards of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.”
After receiving the AGF’s reply, HURIWA wrote a letter to the Ambassador of the United States of America, Mary Beth Leonard.
The letter titled, ‘Take note that (the) Nigerian Government is unwilling to prosecute mass killers,” was received by the American Embassy in Abuja, on October 14, 2020.
The letter partly reads, “Our appeal is that you use your good offices to demand that the Nigerian President take action to prosecute these mass killers who are roaming about freely even after they were paraded by the Inspector-General of Police.”
HURIWA said the justice deliberately feigned ignorance of the Land Use Act which gives the governors control over the lands in their states which implies that legally, governors have the constitutional powers to ban open grazing. The Rights group said the best way to obtain justice for farmers and families murdered by armed Fulani herdsmen is for the justice minister to resign immediately and find full time job as the lawyer to Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association.