President Buhari Condemns Ethnic, Religious Violence

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that his government would protect all religious and ethnic groups, whether majority or minority in line with its responsibility under the constitution.
Malam Garba Shehu, one of the President’s spokesmen, said in a statement on Sunday in Abuja that Buhari made the assertion while reacting to reports of breakout of violence in some parts of the country by some ethnic and sectional groups.

The president warned that the government would not allow any ethnic or religious group to fan the embers of hatred and violence against other groups.

He condemned such violence and gave the assurance that his government would act decisively to stop the spread of any such violence.

He appealed to religious and traditional leaders as well governors and other elected leaders across the country to join hands with the Federal Government to ensure that communities in their domain were not splintered along ethnic and other primordial lines.

Recall that normalcy has since been restored to Shasha community in Ibadan, where traders at the popular market in the area had clashed on Thursday and Friday.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe has asked Buhari to publicly declare that he does not support violent herdsmen.

Abaribe speaking on Channels Tv on Monday morning, said the failure of the government to punish criminal herdsmen had empowered them.

The Senate minority leader said Buhari should be concerned that a particular set of people were being attributed to crimes all over the country.

Abaribe said: “The President needs to come out and say categorically that he does not support the activities of violent herdsmen.

“He needs to say I do not support their actions, Buhari needs to come out for every Nigerian to see his intention to own this problem.

“Why wouldn’t you as chief executive of a country come out and say I’m giving marching orders to security agencies that these cannot continue to happen.

“Where has the President ever said publicly that these criminal herdsmen will never be tolerated.

“I’ve only heard his Spokesman, Adesina say it and not from him.

“What we’ve heard from 2006 is live in peace with your neighbour, try to accommodate your country men and stuffs of that nature.

“This enables those that are committing these crimes that there is no punishment.

“As a president, you should be very worried when you see things happening in the country targeted at a particular set of people. You should ask what is it that makes these people continue to commit these crimes.”