Hunters in Southern Nigeria on Monday stated their resolve to join forces with their members in the North East to put an end to the Boko Haram terrorist organization, who they described as waging a ‘senseless war’ against Nigeria.
The hunters, under the aegis of Association of Animal Hunters of Nigeria, who disclosed this to journalists in Benin, the Edo State capital, stated that they were massing up to join their teeming members in the North East, who had been assisting the Nigerian Army to flush out the insurgents from the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The President of the association, Mr. Raymond Macaulay, lamented that the war in the North East had persisted for so long that the hunters in the South could no turn a blind eye to.
He said, “We just want to be there, and put this nonsense behind us. We want to let our fellow hunters there know that they are not alone. As hunters, what hurts one hurts all.
“We are feeling what they are feeling. And now, we are going there in our thousands to confront this nonsense. Their business is our business. It’s time for action”.
While arguing that no country could win the war on insurgency by military might alone, Macaulay called on the federal government and other well-meaning Nigerians to urgently empower the hunters with logistics and other necessary equipment to enable them move immediately to the North East, especially in view of the spate of recent bombings and mass abduction of women and girls.
“We hope, however, that the federal government will enable us get there quickly. Hunters out-number insurgents and even security agents.
“We can no longer allow antelopes to harass our people in the North. We are battle-ready to join our brother-hunters in the North to stop this insurgency and their (Boko Haram) mindless destruction of our people”, the hunters said.
