Pan Yoruba socio cultural group, Afenifere, has said comments of Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the Southern Governors resolutions have exposed him as unfit for the office.
It said Malami had always allowed his sectarian disposition to becloud his qualifications.
Secretary General of Afenifere, Sola Ebiseni, in a statement in Akure, said Malami was quick to latch on to constitutional provisions each time he perceived a threat to the interests of herdsmen.
Ebiseni stated the AGF denounced South West regional security initiative codenamed Amotekun but developed cold feet when challenged to approach the court.
He said the ban on open grazing and movement of animals by foot was not a denial of “freedom and liberty of movement and does not require the slightest touch of the constitution for the Governor to pronounce.
The group said: “For the attention of Malami, most of the states already have laws banning open grazing and the pronouncement of the Governors was merely to give effect to an existing law.
“It is the animal that is being prohibited from grazing openly and being moved by foot except Malami intends to extend the inalienable human rights in the constitution to animals in the defence of a culture which gives more care to cattle than human beings.
“It is the same primitive mindset of which the Buhari administration has threatened the Governor of Benue State that he would have no place except he allowed a free reign of animals.
“Malami was mischievously playing the role of an agent provocateur when he was inciting Northern Governors to place a ban on spare parts trading in which southerners are involved.
“In deference to their religious and cultural sensibilities, some of the northern states made laws banning trading in alcoholic substances and have been seen destroying such wares in their millions notwithstanding that they share in the VAT collected on those goods and no one is crying over it.
“We in the Afenifere support the resolutions of the Southern Governors banning open grazing and movement of cattle by foot in our territory.
“Those who can cope with the destruction of farm lands and produce by animals and are also permissive of criminality by terrorist herdsmen are free to open their vast lands for such purposes.
“Nigeria will only exist and thrive on the terms agreeable by all its constituent nationalities. Officials of the Federal Government should be advised that their jaundiced sectarian views are eloquent testimony that the Buhari administration has lost the confidence of the generality of Nigerians.”
The Nation
