…..Says Attack Shows Complicity Among Security Agencies
Foremost Civil Rights Advocacy Group, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed worry over the failure of both the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the security agencies in the country to act on the purported intelligence report on impending terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna railway service.
The group said the NRC and the security services had all the time and resources to avert the attack but failed to act if information we gleaned from some competent sources are anything to go by. HURIWA lamented that this sort of inactiin even after getting advanced intelligence about impending attacks are a regular occurance in virtual all bloody attacks staged by armed Fulani militia across the Country thereby lending credence to widespread allegations that the attackers have funders inside the highest echelons of government. The group has therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to uncover these sponsors of terrorism within his administration and flush them out.
In s statement signed by it’s national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media affairs Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the action and inaction of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and the security services in the country have further shown the complicity of the security on the terrorists activities ravaging the country.
HURIWA, while making references to various newspaper publications revealing that intelligence reports about impending terrorists attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna railway services were made available two days prior to the attack yet nothing was done to avert the attack, allowing the terrorists ample time to carry out two attacks on a Kaduna bound train, thereby exposing both the commuters and the rail architectures to harm and danger.
The Civil Rights crusading platform further called on the relevant security agencies in the country to launch a thorough investigation and those found culpable for not acting on the said intelligence should be made to face the full wrath of the law. “The attack on Owerri Correctional Centre and the police command was also captured by proactive intelligence officers of the Department of State Services but as was alleged the police Inspector General then failed to act. The attack on a village near Nsukka two years ago by Fulani terrorists in which over 40 villagers were slaughtered that made the Enugu State governor Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to weep on television whilst visiting the villages, was also revealed to the governor just as the governor reportedly passed on the intelligence to all the heads of security in Enugu State clear 48 hours before the terrorists struck but no action was taken to forestall the attack. All the attacks on Plateau State and Southern Kaduna by armed Fulani militia were detected by intelligence but the armed forces failed to prevent these genocides from happening. The time to stop this vicious circle of deliberate failed intelligence or conspiratorial plots by top officers of the security services is now”.
HURIWA said if the safety of train users can no longer be guaranteed then the railway corporation should as a matter of urgency shutdown services on the Abuja-Kaduna railway pending when security improves.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has said that the attack and killing of over 45 Hausa farmers in Sokoto State and the bombing of the ABUJA/KADUNA train shows that the activities of armed Fulani attackers and terrorists have grown from strength to strength.
The Rights group said it is therefore disappointing and totally unacceptable that President Muhammadu Buhari continues to dither in classifying armed Fulani militia as terrorists so that clear cut military actions are employed to check their expansion. HURIWA deplores the habitually unending empty rhetorical threats intermittently oozing out from the desk of the Senior special assistant on Media to President Muhammadu Buhari informing Nigerians that Mr. President will ‘deal’ with the so called armed bandits who in actual fact says HURIWA are some of the most cruel terrorists in the World in the last half a century.
In a media statement issued by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA insisted that the President Muhammadu Buhari is surrounded by Northern Ethnic bigots as internal security chiefs who share same Ethno-religious affinity with members of the increasingly advancing armed Fulani group causing grave damage to North West State including the recent attacks in Sokoto and the train coming to Abuja the nation’s capital from the erstwhile Northern regional capital of Kaduna. These terrorists, the group insists are heavily pampered and protected by government at the highest levels.
HURIWA is of the strong opinion that President Muhammadu Buhari does not get sound, qualitative, objective security advice which demands that he needs to hire a much more competent, professional and patriotic National Security Adviser who must necessarily not share his same Ethno-religious affiliation.
Citing media reports of the bombing of the ABUJA bound train from Kaduna HURIWA recalled that there was pandemonium from passengers when the security men in the VIP coaches shouted for all to take cover after the loud sound just as lights and the air conditioning systems immediately went off, leaving passengers in the heat and darkness. Policemen in the VIP coaches reportedly shouted to unsuspecting passengers to get down when the loud bang occurred. HURIWA quoted a passenger as stating thus: “We all fell over each other, while some ran to other coaches, thinking that the train was under attacked.”
HURIWA applauded the former Senator representing Kaduna central in the eight session of the Senate of the Federal Republic Senator Shehu Sani for his courage and patriotism in announcing the possible bomb attack which targeted the train in which he too was a passenger who narrowly escaped being harmed by the armed Terrorists.
The Rights group then asked- “Does it make any sense anymore why our President, the head of the Nigerian State and an elected leader of modern day Nigeria, retired military General Muhammadu Buhari is dithering in clearly classifying these bad boys operating in the North West who are mostly Fulani as terrorists? What is the plausible excuse for the Commander -in- chief not to take steps to concretely wipe out these terrorists or is it the case that certain actual terrorists are much more favoured because they come from the Fulani Ethnic stock much more than other so – called ‘terrorists’ who were hurriedly labelled ‘terrorists’ by the current government and the full force of the military unleashed on them even when they are to the best of the knowledge of everyone are not terrorists but campaigners for self determination or self rule?”
“Mr President should be told in plane English that the pampering of Fulani terrorists by his government will backfire because by the time these pampered mass murderers finish with the North West and North Central, they will then move their locations to other regions in Southern Nigeria and this will instigate civil war that may destroy the fragile stability that Nigeria is witnessing. The earlier they are declared as terrorists and crushed decisively and not by audio or fake military strikes as it is now, the better for the health, stability, unity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria “.
The Nigerians Railway Corporation has withdrawn train services from Abuja to Kaduna State. This is coming on the background that trains were reportedly attacked by terrorists on Wednesday. But the corporation said the suspension was to enable it conduct maintenance. “We are withdrawing the DMU on Abuja Kaduna Train Service (AKTS) from Tuesday 19th-Thursday 21st October, 2021 for scheduled maintenance. The DMU will return back to operations on Friday 22/10/21. Tuesday 19th & Wednesday 20th will be four trips each (I:e AK1, KA2, AK9 & KA10).Thursday 21/10/21 will be 8trips ( AK1, KA2, AK3, KA4, AK7, KA6, AK9 & KA10) respectively, While full train service will return on Friday. Any inconvenience to our esteemed passengers is regretted,” NRC announced on its website.
Senator Shehu Sani had alleged terrorists “attacked the Kaduna Abuja railway with an explosive and opened fire on the train”.
But the Nigerian Police denied the claim made by the senator who represented the Kaduna Central senatorial district in the 8th Senate.
Speaking on the development, the State Police Spokesperson, Mohammed Jalige said, “That is not true, the command is not aware of anything. The train was faulty yesterday on its way coming from Abuja to Kaduna which caused a delay in people’s arrival time.
“They were no explosives denoted; there was no any attack.”
PROTESTS MALTREATMENT BY DSS OF IGBO LEADER AND FORMER GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE CHIEF CHUKWUEMEKA EZEIFE
The failure of the hierarchy of the nation’s Federal High Court to defend her independence from the stranglehold of the Executive arm of government represented by the Department of State Services (DSS) that has kept barring Journalists, stakeholders and Human Rights activists from accessing the courtroom for the trial of detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is disastrous message to the World that the judiciary in Nigeria is in chains and is being controlled by the Presidency.
This position was expressed by the prominent Civil society and pro-democracy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which carpeted the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court justice John T. Tsoho for abdication his authority and thereby allowing the operatives of the Department of State Services to dictate who should have access to the publicly funded Federal High Court Complex which contravenes the CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS as encapsulated in sections 4, 5 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
Besides, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) said the denial of access to the courtroom of the respected Igbo leader and former governor of Anambra State His Excellency Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife shows the lack of equity in the administration of the Daura Katsina State born President Muhammadu Buhari and his entire internal security team headed by Northern Moslems with little or no respect for traditional, societal, prominent leaders of other Ethnicities such as the Igbo speaking Ethnicity because if the person of Chukwuemeka Ezeife was one of the prominent Northern Fulani leaders, the Department of State Services won’t subject him to the public opium of letting him sit on the barefloor outside of the Courtroom of the Federal High Court even when it is a notorious knowledge that he was nominated officially by the Igbo Ethnicity to stand in for the race to witness and observe the prosecution of one of the respected Sons of Igboland- Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
HURIWA protested the ugly scenario whereby access to the courtrooms built by the contributions and resources of taxpayers is now out temporarily under the control of the executive arm of government under President Muhammadu Buhari which is the plaintiff in the same matter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the government of Muhammadu Buhari just as the Rights group said this singular act of cowardice on the part of the Nigerian judiciary which ceded the authority to let Nigerians have access to the Courtroom to the control of the Department of State Services headed by a Northern Moslem has open the judicial process to critical doubts regarding the independence and objectivity of the process before the Federal High Court just as the Rights group has asked the Chief Judge to take back the control of the Court Complex.
HURIWA lamented that the hierarchy of the Federal High Court out of fear refused to accredit representatives of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA to observe the judicial trial of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) just as the Rights group accused the chief judge of the Federal High Court of failing to even reply to the written request it sent to his office over two weeks back. HURIWA recalled that in its application titled: “REQUEST TO MONITOR LEGAL PROCEEDING ON MAZI NNAMDI KANU”, it wrote as follows:
“We write to convey our readiness and intention to be offered access to the Court room to monitor the legal proceedings of global importance which involves the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
As members of the organized Civil Rights Community of Nigeria, we feel obliged to attend and watch the proceedings in this specific matter given the groundswell of claims that the management of the Court does not feel comfortable allowing members of the public to attend the proceedings. There’s also the suspicion that the Federal High Court has denied Nigerians access to the trial of Nnamdi Kanu for the reason that the process won’t be transparent and accountable and therefore violate section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution which complete categorises all accused persons as innocent in the eye of the law. The refusal of access to the venue of the trial is therefore not in tandem with Democratic principles of checks and balances.
No doubt Sir, that Nigeria practices Presidential system of government even as Country is governed by a grund norm which states unambiguously that the people are the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria as enshrined in section 14 (2) thus “ It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government: and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”.
Sir, we remind your good offices that the public and the press have qualified First Amendment Right of access to Court proceedings and records. Although the first amendment does not explicitly mention the right of access say Emilies S. Kraft, the United States of America’s supreme Court has held that the right to attend criminal proceedings is implicit in freedom of speech and serves an important function in a democratic society by enhancing trial fairness and appearance. We thereby write you this request so two officers from our organization will be given regular access to monitor Nnamdi Kanu’s trial because of its Human Rights related implications. Whilst awaiting your rapid response, accept our highest consideration and regards.”
HURIWA regretted that the office of the CJ of the Federal High Court which acknowledged HURIWA’s letter however failed to respond either in the negative or positive even as the Rights group said it was disgraceful that Lawyers, Journalists and activists were never allowed access to a public Court Complex. HURIWA recalled that journalists were barred from courtroom as the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, resumed on Thursday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) barred journalists and some court officials from gaining access to the premises.
The frustrated court workers and journalists were seen milling around and wearing heavy frowns.
The media according to HURIWA were not told the reason for the denial because it was not made known by government officials, though a handful of reporters from a list produced by the stern looking DSS operatives were allowed into the premises.
DSS officials had set up a barricade at the entrance of the Court and prevented reporters and officials from entering, resulting in angry scenes and arguments. HURIWA described the behaviour of the operatives of the executive controlled DSS as a primitive recourse to self help effirt by the central government which will inevitably undermine fairness and fair trial.
Most of the DSS operatives were masked as they were clad in their all black ensemble, reports the media quoted by HURIWA.
Gathered outside were frustrated family members, supporters, civil rights groups, lawyers, journalists and other members of the public, who were not allowed near the court.
Nnamdi Kanu’s Special Counsel, Alloy Ejimakor while addressing journalists said the lawyers who accompanied him were also denied access.
HURIWA recalled that Mazi namdi Kanu is facing charges bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government had filed seven amended charges bordering on treasonable felony and acts of terrorism against Kanu on Monday.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, filed the charges on behalf of the government.
HURIWA has therefore advocated the take over of control of the Federal High Court Complex Abuja from the stranglehold of the operatives of Department of State Services by the hierarchy of the Nigerian Court system or it will drag the CJ of Federal High Court to the National Judicial Council for ceding independence of the Federal High Court to the Department of State Services which is unlawful and unconstitutional. “The DSS is under the control and command of the President. The President is behind the ordeals of Nnamdi Kanu and if there will be justice or semblance of justice the least physical evidence of it is the guarantee that the facilities of the Nigerian courts are controlled by staff of the Federal High Court who are judicial staff under the Judicial arm of government and not the same arm of government that has brought a citizen to court under some charges”.
Hundreds of women in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State have blocked Gusau-Kaduna road to protest against persistent attacks by bandits, despite security measures said to be taken by the state government.
Gusau-Kaduna road links the state to several other states both in the North and the South.
The women carried their children and belongings sat on the road, refusing to allow the motorists to pass through the road.
This resulted in traffic and hundreds of motorists were stranded.
One of the women, who gave her name as Sadiya, told The PUNCH that they decided to come out to protest because the bandits were always attacking and raping them and there was no action taken by the security agents to protect them.
Sadiya said, “We blocked the road in order to draw the attention of both the government and the security agents to come to our rescue.”
Another woman, Talatu Sani, said, she left her village of Cediya because the bandits used to go to the village to rape women and steal their food and animals.
“I have to join the protest because the authorities are not doing anything to protect us from this hopeless situation.”
Efforts were made to talk to the spokesperson of the state police command SP Mohammed Shehu without success, as he didn’t pick up phone calls.
Armed bandits on Wednesday reportedly bombed a train travelling between Abuja and Kaduna, inflicting technical damages on the country’s major rail infrastructure.
Former Senator Shehu Sani said a train he rode between Kaduna and Abuja on Thursday morning nearly derailed because of an explosive that damaged a section of the tracks.
Mr Sani, in a telephone exchange with Peoples Gazette over the incident, said the bandits were targeting the trains in order to dispose of passengers of their cash and other valuable possessions. He also said the attackers opened fire on the train driver.
A spokesman for the Nigerian Railway in Abuja did not immediately return a request seeking comments on Thursday morning.
Bandits have repeatedly targeted the railway between the nation’s capital and the key northern city, which has become the preferred route for passengers seeking to avoid the perilous three-hour journey by road.
The deadly gangs have raided military bases and shot down at least one reconnaissance jet of the Nigerian Air Force. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the military paid a ransom to the bandits to prevent President Muhammadu Buhari’s plane from being shot down.
The president has repeatedly vowed to be ruthless against the attackers largely responsible for widespread abduction and plunder of communities across Nigeria’s northwestern region.
But security agencies are warning that the gangs are becoming more armed with sophisticated combat equipment that would make it more difficult to defeat them.
Terror bandits operating between Sokoto and Zamfara states have taken responsibility for the attack on Goronyo Market in Sokoto State, where 49 villagers were killed on Sunday, describing it as a reprisal.
One of the kingpins, who is close to both Kachallah Turji and Halilu Sububu – the two notorious warlords in the area – Shehu Rekeb, said the attack was carried out to avenge killings of “innocent Fulani” in the area.
Daily Trust had on Tuesday reported that the attack was a joint one with the attackers storming the market on over 100 motorcycles.
They surrounded the place and opened fire on buyers and sellers that led to the death of 49 people.
“We heard those who attacked Goronyo being described as criminals. They were not.”
“The president (Muhammadu Buhari) came out to say so. Those people (of Goronyo) have killed so many people, so they would have to be attacked and killed,” he said.
Citing the killing of some Fulani Muslim worshippers at Unguwar Lalle, Rekeb said, “When those people (Fulani) were killed, the president did not say anything but he is now coming out to react to this one.”
A resident had on Monday told Daily Trust that, “The recent attack could be a misplaced reprisal by ‘Yan Sakai’ because of the recent killing of 11 herders at Mamande Market in Gwadabawa Local Government Area.
“This outlawed group is arresting and killing Fulani men unjustifiably,” he said.
The State Security Service (SSS) has blocked all access to the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to prevent lawyers and journalists from attending the trial of separatist and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.
Other litigants who have court hearings scheduled for today are also not being allowed entry into the court by the SSS Peoples Gazette gathered on Thursday morning.
The secret police has denied Mr Kanu access to his lawyers and family since he was abducted and brought back to Nigeria by state operatives in Nairobi, Kenya, with many people questioning the legality of the manner in which he was rearrested.
Mr Kanu was initially charged for terrorism, however, in an amended charge sheet, the SSS said he was now being arraigned for calling President Muhammadu Buhari an idiot, a terrorist, and “embodiment of evil.”
Spokesman to the SSS, Peter Afunnaya did not respond to calls and messages from The Gazette seeking comments on the blockage of the courts.
Commotion as security operatives order all to take cover in pitch darkness
The Abuja-Kaduna train which developed ‘fault’ about 40 kilometres to Kaduna, left passengers in a state of panic for over six hours after taking off from Idu terminal in Abuja, around 6pm Wednesday.
Regional Editor of News Express Garba Muhammad and other passengers in the train said the train developed fault around 8pm after a loud sound from the engine which forced the train to stop.
“We had a loud sound from the locomotive engine, then the train gradually came to abrupt halt,” Muhammad said.
There was pandemonium from passengers when the security men in the VIP coaches shouted for all to take cover after the loud sound.
Lights and the air conditioning systems immediately went off, leaving passengers in the heat and darkness.
“Policemen in the VIP coaches shouted to us to get down when we had the loud bang. We all fell over each other, while some ran to other coaches, thinking that the train was under attacked,” Lawal Isah, one of the passenger said.
Since then, passengers were left in the middle of the bush in the middle of the night afraid of imminent bandits attack.
Another engine came around 12:15am and pushed us to Rigasa, Kaduna – a short distance that took additional two hours with frequent stops and slow movements.
There were no comments from officials in the train as to what caused the engines fault and why it took over four hours for another engine to come for rescue.
The incident, however, generated mixed reactions, as passengers were insinuation a deliberate attack of the engine.
