HURIWA CAUTIONS NIGERIA POLICE AGAINST UNLAWFUL ARRESTS IN IMO STATE

Prominent Civil rights advocacy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has for the umpteenth time warned the men and officers of the Nigeria Police,  especially the Imo State  Police command to be professionally circumspect on how they go about arresting, coercing, parading and slamming allegations on people in Imo State just as the Rights group said media trial of suspects by the police especially in the South-East of Nigeria must be discouraged and discontinued so the principle of Rule of law is upheld all the times. 

The police, HURIWA insists, are not above the law and must comply totally with the provisions of the law since it is a creation of the law.

HURIWA has also cautioned the police to understudy the South East where they are posted from all parts of the Country, so they get acquainted with the socio-cultural practices and traditions of the people of the region to avoid the unlawful arrest of members of the African traditional Religions on the disguised allegations that they are using their shrines to pray for persons perceived as being responsible for the spate of attacks that targeted strategic national security assets in the South East of Nigeria.  HURIWA said security forces have consistently attacked shrines of African traditional worshippers and have had to parade them as collaborators with the so called unknown gunmen and at the end of the day, the police have failed to get any conviction from all these ARRESTS. 

HURIWA which condemned strongly the attacks on strategic national security assets and have also condemned the killing of police operatives, also accused the police in the South East of Nigeria and especially the Imo State command of the widespread use of extrajudicial execution of suspects in their detention facilities and during their security operations in parts of Imo State just as the Rights group said the allegations that police dump unidentified corpses of young Igbo boys in the Federal medical centre in Owerri, Imo State, is a serious indictments that must be investigated by the International Criminal Court in The Hagues Netherlands so those responsible for these crimes against humanity are prosecuted for these odious and gruesome killings. 

HURIWA also faulted the parade of a so-called bomb maker by the police in Imo State just as the Rights group said from the photo evidence of what the police termed bomb making equipment which they paraded with the lone suspect as celebrated in some sections of the Nigerian media, it would seem that what the police calls ‘bomb making’ materials are some locally fabricated non lethal explosives that are used during burials to shoot 21 gun salutes to deserving members of the Igbo communities which is in Igboland is called NKPO NA ANI. 

HURIWA recalled that The Imo State Police Command on Friday said it arrested and paraded a 50-year-old-man one Simeon Onigbo, suspected to be a bomb manufacturer for the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, used in attacking police stations and government facilities in the state.The State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Micheal Abattam, disclosed this to newsmen in Owerri.The command said it was last Wednesday it uncovered and raided the IPOB bomb manufacturing camp at Uba Umuaka in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State, based on the credible information that was made available to the Police.

HURIWA however faulted the police going by the photo evidence of what the police paraded as bomb making materials because from available empirical data, those materials are what are used during Igbo burials all over Igbo land just as the Rights group has demanded that the Nigerian Bar Association Imo State,   Amnesty International, National Human Rights Commission and other credible NGOs be allowed to assess those materials being peddled around in the media as bombs so the Police is not allowed to undermine the traditions and customs of the Igbo in their unscientific haste to announce a breakthrough on the disturbing trends of civil unrest in parts of the South East of Nigeria. 

“The Imo State Police Command must toe the line of professionalism and competency and avoid the hasty parading of persons and their demonisation as criminals when the courts of law is yet to make any binding pronouncements and moreover section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution says all suspects are innocent in the eye of the law until a contrary pronouncements by courts of competent jurisdiction are made and not through police propaganda in the media”. 

Insecurity: HURIWA backs Obasanjo’s call for state police, says existing security apparatus has failed

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria,(HURIWA) on Friday, supported the call by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo for state police to tackle the worsening security situation in Nigeria.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, stressed that the present security architecture of the country has failed, and there is no need to live in denial about it. 

HURIWA wondered why President Muhammadu Buhari undermined the agitation for state police because he thought the Northern Moslems have upper hands in the command and control of the police and in its hierarchical structure. But unknown to President Muhammadu Buhari the overwhelming and skewed domination of the Moslem Northern Nigeria of the police and other internal security institutions did not stop the North from becoming the hotbed of Islamic terrorists because some of those in control of these security infrastructures compromised National security interest due to their extreme Islamic affiliations to terrorists and left the North to become the points for smuggling of sophisticated military grade weapons by Non State actors of Fulani ethnicity. 

HURIWA cited the many terrorist attacks in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, and the entire North-East with the most recent one by the Islamic State of West Africa Province in the Ardo Kola Local Government Area of Taraba State where the insurgents claimed it bombed a drinking spot of “a gathering of infidel Christians”. Several lives were lost, and several others were injured in the explosion.

Also, HURIWA cited the abduction of 80-year-old founder of the Solid Rock Kingdom Church, Apostle John Okoriko, Akwa Ibom State, with the hoodlums demanding a ransom of N100m for his release.

HURIWA said with the rising spate of kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, bank robbery, ritual killings, rape cases, herdsmen attacks, amongst other vicious crimes, the creation of state police must be quick and the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari must be responsive about it.

According to reports, Obasanjo on Wednesday, said, “Our situation in Nigeria concerns everyone, particularly the case of terrorism. The case has gotten over the issue of community police. It is now state police. It is from that state police that we can now be talking about community police.”

Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The general state of insecurity all over Nigeria and especially the crime of kidnapping and terrorism have become widespread because Nigeria is living a lie by claiming to be practicing federalism while the federating units do not legally have powers to control the security institutions.  

“Although there are some leeways that may be explored in the constitution for the states to create security vigilante but these crimes of kidnappings for ritual purposes and for ransom payments need to be stamped out. Also, terrorism must be stamped out. It is long overdue. 

“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was right that state police is the way forward as the existing security apparatus of the country has failed just as President Muhammadu Buhari has woefully failed in his constitutional role of protection of lives and properties. 

“There has to be a police reform. Nigeria must recaliberate and restructure urgently so the states have express powers over the security of their domains.

“The executive and the legislature must join hands together and impose stiff penalty of death by firing squads on convicted kidnappers and terrorists. The judiciary should also join this effort through the speedy dispensation of justice within weeks. 

“Governors like Babagana Zulum should also stop accommodating terrorism through nonsensical and irrational amnesty granted to so-called repentant insurgents whom they claim surrender their arms after killing, kidnapping and raping thousands of innocent Nigerians. Such things as amnesty is intolerable and condemnable as it would buoy more terrorists and kidnappers to continue their heinous crimes knowing well that they would be granted amnesty later in the future. Granting amnesty to bloody terrorists without letting the law take its full course is a sabotage of the Nigerian Constitution”.

“There must be stringent measures against terrorists and kidnappers to serve as deterrent and send strong signals to the enclaves of those Jihadist enemies of Nigeria who suck the blood of Christians while the President, the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force and others look away.”

Aprll 22, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).