•We have a moral duty to help’
Killings, suspected to have been carried out in some parts of Nigeria by herdsmen alleged to be of Fulani extraction, and Boko Haram echoed in the United Kingdom (UK) as the country’s House of Lords debated the issue last week.
The debate came on the heels of the massacre of more than 100 persons in three local government areas of Plateau State last weekend.
Before the Plateau incident, killings in some states in the country, including but not limited to Benue, Adamawa and Taraba had been linked to herdsmen. In the debate in the UK House of Lords on Thursday, several members deplored the killings in Nigeria, asking what their government had done or would do about the situation. The matter was introduced to parliament by Lord Alton of Liverpool under ‘Question for Short Debate in the House of Lords’. The debate was sub-titled, ‘To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the continuing violence between communities and armed groups in Nigeria’.