Gunmen have killed two people in Nyiev community of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
The incident occurred barely two days after nine people were killed in different locations of the local government area.
Council Chairman of Guma, Caleb Aba, told dailytrust correspondent on Thursday that the gunmen besieged Nyiev community and opened fire on the residents.
He said the gunmen were militia who had also trespassed into villagers farm on Wednesday.
Aba said the matter had been reported to security agencies who are doing all they could to stem further invasion.
Contacted, the Police Spokesperson for Benue Command, DSP Catherine Anene, said she was not yet aware of the matter.
The threat by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to appeal the decision of the Federal High Court Abuja division which stops the Federal government from initiating a retrial of the firmer governor of Abia State and Senate Chief Whip Senator Orji Uzor Kalu over alleged financial infractions as then Abia State’s governor, has been described as meaningless shadow boxing and emotional pursuit of self help measures by the EFCC.
Speaking against the backdrops of the landmark decision of the Federal High Court in which the erstwhile governor of Abia State was freed of the planned retrial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) said the persistent and sustained tempo of media persecution by the EFCC against the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial Orji Uzor Kalu, has graphically exposed the hierarchy of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as a group of persons pursuing a war of Ethno-religious vendetta against one of the most prominent Igbo South East Politicians with the potency to be considered for the position of the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2023 Presidential election. “It would seem that some reactionary elements from the Arewa Peoples Congress and the Northern Governors Forum may have penetrator the EFCC and have deployed the EFCC to weaken the possibility of the South East to present a formidable candidate for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) RECALLED that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, had on Wednesday, barred the Federal Government from retrying the former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, based on the N7.1billion money laundering charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, earlier preferred against him.
HURIWA recalled that the court, in a judgement that was delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the Supreme Court did not in the verdict it gave on May 8, 2020, order the retrial of either Kalu or his his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited.
HURIWA said the presiding judge Justice Ekwo held that the Supreme Court only ordered the retrial of former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu, who was the Appellant before it. Consequently, he upheld a suit Kalu filed to challenge the legal propriety of his planned re-arraingment by the EFCC.
HURIWA recalled that Senator Kalu had in the Application he filed through his team of lawyers let by Chief Awa Kalu, SAN, argued that allowing the EFCC to try him afresh on the charge and same facts upon which he was earlier convicted and sentenced on December 5, 2019, would occasion him to suffer a “double jeopardy”.
HURIWA recalled that following their dissatisfaction with the ruling of an Abuja Federal High Court, which barred it from retrying the former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Wednesday vowed to appeal against the ruling.
“EFCC believes the judge erred in this ruling as Section 36(9) of the 1999 constitution is applicable only where the previous judgment was by a court of competent jurisdiction.
” In this case, the apex court had in the said judgment described the process that led to the conviction of Kalu as a nullity because the Judge came from the Court of Appeal to decide the matter.
“The Commission further avers that the court erred in its ruling that the Supreme Court did not order the retrial of Kalu; that it amounts to cherry-picking for Kalu to profit from the decision of the Apex court nullifying the conviction of his co defendant, Ude Udeagu but is not prepared to face the burden of retrial,” EFCC’s Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said on Wednesday night.
HURIWA however condemned the EFCC for seeking to have the same matter that was decided by the competent court of law and reached a determination that saw the former Governor going to the Kuje Prisons spending over 6 Months just before the highest Court in Nigeria the Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled that the judicial process that led to the sentencing of Orji Uzor Kalu to Kuje Prison was irregular and therefore ordered the immediate freedom for the erstwhile governor. HURIWA said the attempt to initiate the same case twice after the accused person had spent time in prison for same charges amounted to double jeopardy which is irregular and unconstitutional. The Rights group has therefore asked the EFCC to perish the thought of frittering humongous of public fund to chase politically motivated persecution of Orji Uzor Kalu at the Court of Appeal.
Nigeria’s foremost Civil Society group, The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria-HURIWA has decried what it described as the Federal government’s deliberately hasty, panic move’ to shutdown telecommunications network in some Northwestern states of the country.
In a statement signed by it’s national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the Civil Rights crusader said it is unfair and unpatriotic for the Federal government to continue to approve telecommunications network shutdown for states in the troubled North-West region when it is obvious that the shutdown has so far not affected the terrorists and their nefarious activities but only further compound the suffering on Nigerians and make operations more difficult for our troops executing the war against terrorist elements in the region.
The group said the minister of Telecommunications and digital economy Sheikh Ibrahim Pantami has by this grossly incompetent measure demonstrated that he is unaware of what the right steps are to contain the rising terrorists attacks in the North West affecting mostly Christians and Hausa people just as the dominant members if the terror groups unleashing the unprecedented violence are Fulani herdsmen sharing same Ethno-religious affiliation with the controversial minister who had been caught expressing solidarity with Al-Qaeda terrorists. The Rights group thinks what is going on in the North West is a genocide of Northern Christians and Indigenous native Hausas.
HURIWA made references to a dailytrust publication of Tuesday September 14th which quoted a military source attributing the attack on a forward Operation base of troops fighting terrorists in the North-West to lack of communication between troops due to the network jam in the region. A dozen troops were eventually killed by the terrorists during the attack.
“While the jamming of GSM in Zamfara has gone a long way in taming the bandits, it also has a negative effect on troops because communication among them was also extremely restricted,” the source said.
“Most of the foot soldiers relied on normal phone networks instead of any of the specialised communication gadgets that should be deployed during operations such as the one going on in the North West.
“Only the top commanders have military radio or walkie-talkie, meaning those in the frontlines would only use their personal mobile phones which are no longer accessible.
“The bandits took advantage of this and attacked them at their forward operation base. As you can see, the attack was launched on Saturday but it only came to the fore days after,” he said. Another source said there was the need to deploy specialised communication gadgets for the troops.
“The ban on communication in Zamfara and parts of Katsina is not bad in its entirety but the military high command should have taken note of the adverse effect on troops.”
In the same publication, Dailytrust also reported how the terrorists operating in the North-West states now use thuraya satellite phones to bypass the ban on telecommunications network in the region.
HURIWA also decried the increase in frequency of attacks and killings of innocent Nigerians in the North-West since the so called telecommunication network jam came to effect, questioning it’s sincerity of purpose.
From various news paper publications, online and offline, over 300 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists across the Northwest since the telecommunications shut down began, hundreds have been abducted in the same vein.
This is an indication that the network shutdown has failed to achieve it’s purpose and therefore should be reviewed.
