Malami’s spare parts comment is shameful- NAS

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

 The comment of the Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami which compared open grazing of cattle in southern Nigeria to selling of spare parts  in northern Nigeria has been described as shameful.

The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) which knocked Malami over the comments stated that the latter was drawing false equivalence.

The NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje in a statement “Malami unfit to remain AGF” noted that it was disheartening that Nigeria’s Chief Law Officer would be making statements capable of inciting Nigerians against one another.

According to him selling of spare parts is clearly a legitimate business that does not habitually involve criminal trespass on other citizens’ properties and the frequent threat and actuality of lethal violence which opening grazing.

“This facile comparison compels us to remind Mr. Malami of the communal strife, mass murder, and massive destruction of farmlands and property, which have been the direct consequence of this archaic practice of open cattle grazing sans respect for property rights,” he said.

Owoaje who pointed that Amnesty International had reported the killing of over 3,600 Nigerians while thousands displaced from their homes and ancestral land “since 2016 open grazing transmogrified into criminal trespass and premeditated programmes of murderous barbarity” stressed that section 41 of the Nigeria’s Constitution which guarantees freedom of movement “cannot be translated into the unrestrained right to roam and trespass by animals and their herders, or their criminal proxies.”

He noted given the prevailing situation in the country people like Malami are not fit to be in the Federal Executive Council.

The statement read in part “As the Chief Law Officer of the country with such a sectarian mindset, Mr. Malami, with his comments, has exposed himself as one of those frustrating the resolution of the farmers/herders crisis. He appears to be an agent of destabilization, who has no place in the Federal Executive Council.

His remarks are a disservice to his position as the Attorney-General, and the profession in which he has attained some prominence, and regrettably, an indication that he is no longer fit for the position he presently occupies.

At a time the unity of this country has been badly shaken; and a period when impunity stalks the land, keeping Mr. Malami as the Attorney-General is a mockery of justice and fairness, and an assault on national cohesion. He should honourably resign his position, or be fired to save the Buhari government from further embarrassment”