Human rights activist Femi Falana has accused the government of President Muhammadu Buhari of defending killer-herdsmen which was why the issues continued.
He said it has come to a point where the people needed to defend themselves as the Buhari-led government had failed the people.
According to Falana, that was why he had accused the Buhari administration of portraying itself as defending herders and not other Nigerians because Almajiris have been deported, beggars and the destitute deported, but that the President never defended them.
“The government never raised any constitutional issues. My position is that the government can stop the citizens from taking the law into their own hands to assure the people in concrete terms of the security of their lives and property. It is a simple and straight forward matter,” he said in an interview on The Punch Online programme.
He said Nigerians elected people into offices and that it was the duty of the government to defend them.
“And I expect Nigerians to mobilise and compel the government to guarantee the security of lives of everybody. So, it is not about citizens attacking one another; it is about not allowing the government to dodge their responsibilities to the people,” he said.
Falana stated that Section 14, sub-section 2b provided that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.
He said that section did not say, the security of the people shall be the responsibility of any citizen and that the government must perform the duty “and there are solutions to these problems that have not been addressed.”
