Retired Lt. General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma has urged Nigerians to defendĀ themselves from killers across the country instead of depending on the armed forces.
Danjuma, a former chief of army staff from 1976-1979, said this today in a live telecast programme of the 10th anniversary of the Taraba State University, Jalingo, as he also made a grave accusation against the armed forces,Ā accusingĀ them ofĀ providing cover and defending the killers.
āYou must rise to protect yourselves from these people. If you depend on the armed forces for protection, you will all die one by oneā, said a visibly angry Danjuma.
āThe ethnic cleansing must stop now. Otherwise, Somalia will be a childās play. I ask everyone of you to be on the alert and defend your country, defend your territory, defend your state because you have nowhere else to go.
āThe armed forces are not neutral. They are conniving with the armed bandits that are killing people,ā he said.
Danjuma described Taraba as a miniature Nigeria with beautiful cultures which the bandits were doing everything to destroy.
Taraba, the home state of the retired general, had witnessed, like the MiddleĀ Ā Belt states of Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa,Ā clashes between herdsmen and farmers, leading to many deaths. Herdsmen alleged that about 800 of them were killed on the Mambilla Plateau, a charge the Taraba state government has denied.
There have also been the problems of banditry andĀ cattle rustling in some North Western states, especially Zamfara, which President Muhammadu Buhari visited on Thursday. There he orderedĀ the armed forces to stop the killings all over the country.
Across the country have been reports of either banditry, herdsmen killing farmers or their hosts andĀ kidnapping.
Danjumaās advice was that all Nigerians should protect themselves, rather than waiting for the armed forces alone to protect them.
