PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC DECRIES BURNING OF SIX FULANIS IN GBOKO

Six Fulani travellers were allegedly burned to death in Gboko, Plateau State, on Wednesday, 31st January, 2018.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) strongly denounces this criminal act. It is wicked, inhuman and barbaric.

In particular, we are greatly worried that no media house has deemed it fit to give this dastardly act any attention. The radio stations are silent over it. The television stations have ignored it. The print media also do not consider it as newsworthy. Yet these are the same outfits which gave extensive coverage, superfluous broadcast times and exaggerated publicity to the unfortunate Benue killings.

The same media outfits kept mum when 732 Fulanis were massacred in Mambilla. They looked the other way when 82 women and children of Fulani stock were killed in cold blood in Numan. They said nothing when life was brutally snuffed out of 24 Fulanis in Lau. They couldn’t be bothered when 96 Fulanis were cut down in Kajuru.

The Nigerian landscape is now very unsafe for the Fulani man, woman or child. Fulanis have become endangered species. The problem here is that Nigerians are cutting their noses to spite their faces. Heavy doses of ethnic jingoism are being injected into the blood streams of Nigerians on a daily basis. We are turning into bitter enemies among ourselves. Who did this to Nigeria?

MURIC is of the opinion that the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Nigerian Police and the press have a lot to do in this matter. There is an urgent need for NOA to disabuse and re-engineer the Nigerian bolekaja mentality. The police must apprehend all killers of men no matter their tribal leaning, whether they are Benue militia, killer herdsmen or Berom hoodlums. The Nigerian media must also eschew asymmetric reportage.

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)