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By Akporobaro Usi
The new attempt by the DSS to create an ISIS narrative to cover the mayhem being perpetrated by Fulani Herdsmen exposes a very dangerous dimension to the problem.
It implies that not only are the top officials of the Presidency sympathetic to the herdsmen but they are ready and willing to use our national security assets to cover and aid these murderous hordes.
There are patent contradictions in the linking of these murders to ISIS elements only because the DSS is concerned about the umbrage been directed at the Presidency because of its obvious sympathies with the herdsmen and their activities.
If there are ISIS elements working for the herdsmen, it only shows the desperate and callous extent they have gone to execute their deadly and dastardly acts.
What cannot be erased, even by the DSS deflection are the following facts:
The acts of terrorism by herdsmen have been repeatedly given a political face by Myetti Allah
Buhari is a grand patron of Pastoralist/Myetti, he wrote so in his INEC forms. Even if he decides to deny it in the next forms he fillls, he cannot erase the previous ones.
Buhari led a delegation to Ibadan decades ago as the leader and spokesperson of Myetti Allah under the auspices of ACF.
Myetti and their henchmen have promoted threats prior to and after such attacks and have been the chief mourners for all Herdsmen caught in the act.
Whereas there are Farms all over Nigeria, these herdsmen have gone as far as Ondo state to burn the Farm of Chief Olu Falae in Ondo state only a few days after he joined other Federalist calling for the restructuring of Nigeria to condole with the government and people of Benue state.
Olu Falae is not a Gospel Evangelist who is going around the country preaching religion, how this ties to ISIS can only be explained by the DSS.
Furthermore, it is difficult to see how the DSS sees and hears of threats by Myetti Allah and their related groups, sits back and do nothing and these threats are followed by mass killings from Southern Kaduna to Mambilla, Agatu to Rural towns in Plateau state , yet the Service has been unable to invite any member of Myetti and their associates for investigation, let alone prosecution.
Funnier still is the sense the DSS wants us to make, of the link between ISIS and the following related facts connected to herdsmen and the carnage all over the country; namely;
The advocacy by the Presidency for a Grazing Bill.
The willingness of the Presidency to commit federal funds to the importation of grass for herdsmen
The commitment of Federal Special forces to the protection of herdsmen against rustlers while aloof to the protection of farmers and their farmlands
The advocacy of the Presidency for Grazing Colonies
The refusal of the Police IG to acknowledge that herdsmen attacked innocent citizens in Benue but would rather call it a communual conflict
The advocacy by the President for the families of victims of herdsmen carnage in Benue State to accommodate their killers.
Besides an attempt to deflect and conflate issues, how does the DSS suddenly feel that throwing ISIS into the narrative help to address these ongoing contradictions from President Buhari and his Chief officials as they cuddled murders around the country in the same way he cuddled them before the late Governor Lam Adesina.
In fact rather than reassure Nigerians, the DSS have only served to alarm the nation that, the Presidency not only protects these killers but is willing to go to any length to confuse citizens, give them a false sense of safety, while muarading herdsmen are left roaming all over the country killing and maiming citizens as they please with Presidential immunity and security cover provided by a biased security system, deliberately populated by sympathetic jingoists, appointed to serve regional rather than national security interests.