The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has said that the shoot-on-sight order issued by President Muhammadu Buhari carry effect if soldiers raid the forests to get rid of the gun-bearing herdsmen.
It would recalled that the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, said on the Hausa Service of the BBC on Wednesday, March 3 that the president had ordered the deployment of kinetic warfare against illegal arms-bearing person.
“The president has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK-47.
“He ordered that whoever is seen with terrible weapons at all should be shot immediately,” Shehu said.
But the national president of CDHR, Mr. Osagie Obayuwana, said in a statement that such orders will only have effect if forests are raided, as those who carry AK-47 rifles do not stay at bus-stops or in markets.
“To the CDHR, the shoot-on-sight order reported to have been made by Mr. President will only have meaning when the soldiers march into the forest,” the statement reads.
“This is especially so as those with AK47 rifles are not at bus-stops and shopping malls; they are in the bushes and forests.
“Besides, Mr. President needs to be reminded that it is not only farmers who are at risk; travellers on most high ways in Nigeria are at the mercy of rifle wielders, who have made a sport out of pouncing on vehicles in-between cities and towns.”
The group also called on the federal government to ensure that the abduction of schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, is the last of such occurrences.
It also urged the government at all levels to ensure that security modalities are in place in all schools.
“We will, however, be more assured to see modalities being worked out between federal, state, and local governments to enhance development of infrastructural facilities in all schools, a principal part of which ought to be fencing and security facilities, with adequate day and night security personnel being a major component,” it added.
