- Says Nigerian Constitution ‘on suspension’
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, on Tuesday, admonished that Nigeria is drifting towards a state of anarchy under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Fayose subsequently, appealed to the international community “to intervene and rescue the country from turning to a war zone, where mass killings are a usual occurrence.”
The Nigerian polity is being beclouded through the week with incidence of murder of 17 worshippers and two priests in a Catholic Church on Gwer Local Government, Benue State, by herdsmen; including controversies over President Buhari’s withdrawal of $496 million from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) without approval of the National Assembly; as well as the drama over the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye.
The Governor alleged that under the government of President Buhari, the Nigerian constitution was “on suspension”.
“If half of the level aggressiveness being shown by the Police on the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye because of seeming concocted allegations is shown on the killings by herdsmen across the North Central states and other parts of the country, the rampaging killer herdsmen that are even killing policemen would have been brought under control,” Fayose said in a statement by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.
“It is alarming and curious that Father Joseph Gor, one of the Catholic Priests that were murdered in Benue State today, raised alarm on January 3, 2018, through his Facebook account on the occupation of Mbalom community by herdsmen. Yet, the priest was killed,” the governor said.
“Why is the federal government allowing this seeming ethnic cleansing in Benue and other middle-belt States, such that President Buhari and the entire members of his government do not see the wanton killings as anything to be worried about?
“When did Nigeria degenerate to the level that people can no longer worship peacefully in their churches or go to their farms? When did Nigeria become a state of anomie where people are killed even after raising alarm that there was threat to their existence?”
On the illegal withdrawal of $496 million from the Excess Crude Account, Governor Fayose said: “One day, this federal government will even stop releasing statutory allocations to States and Local councils. They are behaving as if the constitution of the country is already suspended and this should worry lovers of democracy in Nigeria.”