Spokesman of the Nigerian Senate Ajibola Basiru has taken a swipe at the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami over his “less than dignifying” argument of equating open grazing with southerners selling spare parts in the North.
The senator said the statement credited to the Nigerian Minister of Justice also ridicules the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and therefore called for the immediate removal from office of the AGF.
“The statement of the Attorney General is one capable of derailing the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria and anyone who cannot rise above primordial sentiments and pursuit of parochial ethnic agenda need not occupy a position of trust especially at this time of sectional agitations,” Senator Basiru said in a statement on Thursday.
According to him, “it was not dignifying of the status of the Nation’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice to make such remarks. Equating the activities of archaic nomadic herdsmen destroying peoples means of livelihood with others legitimately carrying on businesses by selling spare parts in their shops stand logic on its head.
“Those who have no meaningful contributions to national discourse operating on the basis of equity and justice should keep quiet and stop rubbishing the Buhari led APC government.”
“These kinds of statements have made Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of Nations and in fact they ridicule the Administration of President Buhari. These statements are not giving hope to those at the receiving end of the activities of the herdsmen.”
The Senate spokesman also noted that the Attorney General of the Federation forgets that Nigeria is a federal system with the states government empowered to make and implement laws for the peace, order and good government of or any part of their respective state.
“This power is derived from the Constitution, which with the Land Use Act, vested on the Governors the management of all land within the territory of the state.
He challenged the AGF to cite relevant sections of the constitution which allowed the herders to trespass on other people’s land and destroy the crops in the guise of freedom of movement adding that AGF’s comment is less than patriotic.
By Abel Ejikeme
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