Ex-Army Chief Knocks Buhari Over Herdsmen Killings, INEC

Ex Army Chief, Alani Akinrinade

A former Chief of Defence Staff, Alani Akinrinade, has slammed the federal government over the lingering crisis between herdsmen and farmers in the country.

Akinrinade, a retired army general spoke on Monday as Chairman of the occasion of the first anniversary lecture of the administration of Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.

He said that the armed herdsmen had been unleashing violence for several months without any efforts by the Federal Government to check their excesses.

“It was recently when our president was called out as the patron of his kinsmen, the herdsmen, that letters of complaints and its denials between the federal executive, the police and governors in distress started circulating that he gave feeble, unclear, halfhearted order to stop the carnage.

“Let us allow history to deliver its verdict after much more have died, but I am certainly tired and ashamed of being classified as a barbarian,” he said.

“The last two or so years in our country, appears to be like a tragic thriller movie in slow motion, full of abject cruelty of the highest order of barbarity, edged on by those we elected or selected to give us leadership in this country,” he added.

He called on state governors of the Southwest geo-political zone to defend their lands against the marauding herdsmen and recommended the creation of state police to salvage the country from security challenges bedeviling it.

Mr. Akinrinade also condemned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for registering underage voters in the North due to the threat to lives of its officials.

He rejected INEC’s excuses over the under aged registrations, saying the security agencies were there to deal with such threats.

“What then happened to our humongous financial outlay of seven infantry Army Divisions, a mighty Air Force and a Navy that supposedly rule our portion of the seas, hundreds of thousands of policemen and numerous other gun totting formations, when mere threat of violence is all that is required to hold sway over law and order?

“Or are these python dancing? Where are the men who refuse to do the wrong things? Could INEC not have withdrawn their services and closed down all facilities? Collaborators?” he questioned.