Group urges Police, DSS to prosecute FFK over comment

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

A Civil Society Organisation has urged the Nigeria Police Force and Department of State Security Service, DSS to prosecute Femi Fani Kayode over inflammatory statement he made against Fulani herdsmen.

Speaking to newsmen in Kano yesterday the Programme  Officer Peace Project of Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Abdulganiyyu Rufa’i Yakub, called on the law enforcement agencies to arrest, investigate and prosecute the former spokesman of Jonathan/ Sambo presidential campaign in 2015.

Kayode, had in an article published in the Guardian newspapers on Wednesday, 30th September, 2015, described Fulani herdsmen as the pest of Nigeria, African Tsetse flies, other derogatory statements, calling on people in the Southern region to unleash violence against the nomadic people.

The group also called on all stakeholders to recognise the danger the statement poses and act decisively to stop it before enemies of the country use the opportunity to drag it into chaos and confusion.

He said “ It would be recalled that FFK in a recent article on page 15 of the Guardian newspaper of 30th September, 2015, described Fulani Herdsmen as ‘pest of Nigeria, African Tsetse flies, blood suckers, leeches, destroyers and killers, terrorists’ and all sorts of names. He did not stop at these de-humanizing descriptions but heedlessly went on to call upon the people of southern Nigeria to unleash collective violence against the largely unprotected people.”

Continuing Yakubu added that “While we condemn this irresponsibly inflammatory article, we strongly demand law enforcement agencies, DSS and the NPF specifically, to investigate and prosecute him for such callous and inciting statements.”

The civil society group also urged the stakeholders to not just condemn the statements but insists that ‎law must take its course, noting that if appropriate punishment is taken against him it would deter those bent on destroying the country’s cohesion.

They however called on the people of the southern region to shun all calls for violence and embrace their fellow compatriots in order to sustain the nation’s peaceful coexistence.