The Middle Belt Forum has hailed the declaration of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, saying it is a welcome development that would help the Nigerian government be on its toes.
In a statement on Sunday, the National President of the Forum, Bitrus Pogu, regretted that the Federal Government had failed to use its capacity to stop the killings, describing the remark by the American President as a necessary push for decisive action.
He lamented the scale and frequency of attacks, noting that sometimes “a hundred, two hundred, and even up to three hundred people are killed at a time.
He desccribed it as unprecedented in Nigeria, adding that it amounted to an indictment of the authorities for allowing violence to persist.
“The government to me is the issue, it is an indictment on our government that the government has the capacity to handle the problems of this country but it has not,” he said.
Pogu placed responsibility for many of the attacks on Islamist and militia groups, saying attackers “are known, whether they are Boko Haram or Fulani militia, they are all Muslims, they are jihadist groups.”
He accused some of these groups of openly declaring a jihadist agenda and of targeting communities on religious and ethnic grounds.
“The Fulani herdsmen militia is just like the jihad. They came to Hausa land, took over their traditional institutions. Now they are killing the Hausa who are predominantly Muslim and they are taking their land.
“The violence in the North West and North Central, and in the Middle Belt, has been allowed to continue “for over 10 years,” he lamented.
