Nasarawa PDP Declares 7-day Protest

Yesterday, protesters demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) examine the outcome of the governorship election in Nasarawa State.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Stakeholders-led demonstrators in Nasarawa State’s Karu local government area demanded the resignation of the state’s resident electoral commissioner immediately.

INEC was accused of bias in the way the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections were handled by the party leadership in Karu.

With signs reading “#INEC We Say No To Manipulations; #INEC Keep Your Promise; International Communities Save Our Country Our Leaders Are Compromised; Protect Us From Manipulators; We Need Our Nation To Be Cleansed From Injustice And Manipulation; The Will And Rights Of The People Must Be Respected,” protesters also voiced their displeasure with the results.
The group’s leader, Comrade Chindo Allahyayi, announced the start of a seven-day protest at the group’s Karu headquarters and requested the commission to reinstate the people’s mandate.

We are starting a seven-day protest to inform the entire state and country that our candidate has won, he declared. We are thus requesting that INEC reconsider its judgment right now and declare our candidate the winner.

“We are urging people to return to the IReV portal and review all the results from all the voting places in the 13 LGA of Nasarawa State so they can clearly see that David Ombugadu, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won the March 18 governorship in Nasarawa State.

Because it won’t result in a healthy society, we strongly denounced the election rigging, Allahyayi stated.
The Coalition for Ombugadu Campaign’s public relations representative requested the commission to change course and examine its operations.

Why we want polls that prodcued Tinubu cancelled –Kogi women

Women in Kogi State’s three senatorial districts have demanded that the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, which resulted in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu being elected president, be called off.

The women based their justification for the appeal on the “chaos, brigandage, widespread violence, bloodlets, and even deaths that marred the election” at a press conference in Lokoja.

“As you are all aware, a major milestone in the history of Nigeria recently passed, a date that has become a watershed in the democratic story of Nigeria,” said Esther Opaluwa, who addressed on behalf of the organization. All Nigerians, both at home and abroad, were anxiously awaiting February 25, 2023 because it would mark the start of a new democratic era in our nation. Everyone, including our youth and women, avidly participated in all the events that led up to that day.

“But, the day came to a tumultuous end, with brigandage, widespread violence, blood, and even fatalities. Our traumatized sensibilities were further harmed by what we were seeing on the television screens, which was completely the opposite of what the Federal Government, our President, Mohammadu Buhari, the NASS, the security chiefs, and even the umpire of the electoral processes had assured us will happen, as we lamented and mourned over what had transpired during the day at almost all of the polling stations.

The women demanded that the perpetrators of violence in and around Kogi State be brought to justice and encouraged Governor Yahaya Bello to assume his role as the state’s top security official.

Amnesty International asks Adamawa State Government to lift expulsion of NGO’s

Amnesty International has demanded that the state governors’ orders to exclude non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Adamawa immediately be upturned.

In a statement, Amnesty International’s Director, Osai Ojigbo, claimed that the decision will harm the states’ most vulnerable citizens.

The government of Adamawa state since outlawed NGOs’ operations as the organizations were charged with attempting to sway voters in the recently held presidential and national assembly elections.

Yet Mrs. Ojigbo underlined that the persecution of organizations that advocate or protect human rights in governments must come to an end.

“Amnesty International demands that the governors of Adamawa immediately reverse their arbitrary deportation of non-governmental organizations. When organizations are attacked for nothing more than carrying out their routine duties while saving lives, it primarily harms the disadvantaged communities they are assisting.

“This campaign of intimidation against independent groups and human rights advocates must halt. The governor of the states of Adamawa must permit independent organizations and human rights advocates to operate freely.

“The suspension of NGOs in Adamawa state, is repressive and a direct attack on the civic space. Authorities of the state must desist from the such arbitrary exercise of powers and focus more on rebuilding and resettling communities displaced by years of attacks by bandits and insurgents,” she said.

Benue government slams INEC for not providing PVCs to IDPs

The Benue state government has voiced alarm over the difficulty in obtaining Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for a number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state so they can participate in the upcoming elections.

At the beginning of the monthly distribution of food and non-food supplies to IDPs at the SEMA headquarters in Makurdi, Dr. Emmanuel Shior, the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency, raised the issue.

“I found out that virtually all of them registered, but not all of them have acquired their PVCs,” said Dr. Shior, who made this statement on a recent routine visit to the IDPs to interact with them and determine whether they were properly registered and had received their PVCs.

“They are unhappy, and I am also unhappy. The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, is to blame, not the Benue state government or SEMA. “But the ones that have their PVCs, a good number of them, are ready to vote.”

The SEMA Executive Secretary complimented Governor Samuel Ortom for increasing the month’s intervention and praised him for providing monthly provisions for the IDPs to ensure their maintenance.

In response to an assertion made by the executive secretary of SEMA, Mr. Terkaa Andyer, the public information officer for INEC in Benue State, stated that “the commission went around to capture all IDPs who possessed voter cards.

“The commission profiled them in a way that allowed for the printing of their cards for them. Unfortunately, the majority of them live in rural areas. We couldn’t produce cards for them using the data we collected.

“They (IDPs) were at fault, not the Commission, because they were unable to provide us with enough information to enable us to create cards for them. The Commission did not consciously intend to deny the IDPs in the State their right to vote.

SOUTHERN KADUNA: BUILDING FROM THE RUINS

Being a Keynote delivered by Gloria Mabeiam Ballason Esq at the Public Presentation and Launch of: Southern Kaduna: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, at New Choice Hall, Kafanchan on Friday 10 February, 2023.

PROTOCOLS

Thank you for the privilege of this invitation. I thank Pastor Gideon Mutum and the organizing team for extending this invitation to me and I especially congratulate the Author, Pst. Philemon Cletus Gado, who deemed it worthy to capture his scholarly research and thoughts into a book and has now invited us to engage the ideas through the tripartite tangents of the past, the present and the future.
A quick walk down history’s lane:
An Austrian born German under whose leadership the Nazi party climbed to power became the Reich Chancellor in 1933. Brilliant, engaging but humanly debased and depraved, he capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting to seize power in Germany and to fan the embers of virulent hatred against the Jews. By 1941, the anti-semitic sentiments of this son of a local customs official led to a deliberate and systematic murder of European Jews and it lasted untill1945- a period history tells us defined the second world war.
Prior to 1939, the global population of Jews worldwide had peaked at about 16.6 million. However, when it was all said and done and the beastly fangs of the holocaust had ravaged humanity and killed at least one in three Jews, six million Jews laid murdered. The figures next to the casualties was the varied forms the Jews were killed. The Germans called this “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” To put this in context, the Germans felt the Jews were a dispensable set of people who did not deserve to breathe the air above them nor walk the free ground beneath them.
Let’s flip the scene to the experience of a 4-year old in Zaria Nigeria, an experience that is personal because it is mine: One night in 1987, we were saying our night prayers and were singing the hymn ‘Have Courage My Boy to Say No’ ; when people outside our doors began to run helter-skelter. A neighbor ran into our house. My dad and mom tried to keep us all composed through the prayers but it was obvious that something terrible was going on outside. I looked up the wall before me; staring back at me was the long-term calendar that endured on our wall which read: ‘This Same Jesus is Coming Back Again. Are You Ready to Meet Him?’ I skimmed off the memories of what I had learnt at family devotions and in Sunday school and wondered silently if we would have to see Jesus that night.

We couldn’t round up the prayers. We ran through the back door of the house. There before us was thick smoke and darkness bellowing from the Campus. That was the longest, most terrifying night up until then. We made it through the night, but many were not so lucky.The next morning, my dad hobbled us into his blue Volkswagen Beetle car. We drove past Nassara Baptist church, it was burnt. We got to Ahmadu Bello University, Kongo campus, Rev. Dr. Ben Oruma had been beaten and left for dead, the chapel he preached in was razed down. Churches in GRA Sabon-gari and environs were burnt. We would later learn that it was a case of a religious disagreement in Kafanchan which snowballed into crises in Zaria and environs and resulted in the destruction of hundreds of lives and properties worth billions of naira. The beautiful world I imagined was shattered and I could not reconcile whether I was born a crime or for glory to reveal the majesty of my name.

The timelines will show that from the 1980 Kasuwan Magani crisis through 1986 in Yarkasuwa, Lere District,1987 in Kafanchan,1992 in Zangon Kataf,1999 in Southern Kaduna, 2000 which saw an unprecedented escalation in casualties, 2002 Miss World, 2011 in Anchuna, 2011 at Tabak, Kukum-Kagoro and then from 2012 till date, the cycle of violence meted on our communities in Southern Kaduna has continued. Our lives and history have been shaped by these unfortunate incidences. These are not slow-boiling conflicts as is often wrongly reported; they are systemic killings and mass atrocities crimes of genocidal proportions that demand international intervention.The political marginalization and the economic, educational and infrastructural deprivation, reveal a structural neglect. If that is not bad enough, under the Nasir Elrufai government, the region has experienced unprecedented persecution. Politically, the diversity of the state is not represented. Thousands of Civil servants and teachers have been thrown out of jobs. Tertiary institutions in Southern Kaduna were exclusively shut down by the Government. The identities of the people were changed by executive fiat and cultural heritages have been destroyed. Paramount leaders and dissenting civic voices and journalists have been imprisoned, kidnapped or killed.

But are we without hope? Hardly.

It was Nelson Mandela who said during the Healing and Reconciliation service in Johannesburg: ‘Our human compassion binds us the one to the other-not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.’
Mandela knew that for a people who suffer long term structural, systemic and often state-sponsored neglect, they would require hope and healing to move forward. The Jews knew it too. Today the story of the Jews goes beyond the Holocaust to a sterling example of how to build from the ruins.
Israel and the Jewish in the diaspora observe the annual “Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Courage of the Jewish People,” because while most Jews were mired in poverty at the beginning of the twentieth century, they are today global champions in commerce, manufacturing, international trade, Hollywood and in creative inventions and innovations. They have built social networks across many countries and have imbibed a culture that promotes universal literacy and book learning, while retaining a sense of common fate and deeply shared brotherhood.

As I think about the present and the future of Southern Kaduna, the ability of the Jews to build from the ruins of the Holocaust to becoming an indomitable global example comes to mind. And this is where I draw a distinction to how the Jews and Black Americans interpreted their tragedies. Pivotal to Jewish history is the Holocaust while Black America continues to suffer from racism and white domination. The Jews however decided to move into conqueror mode so that when they speak of the effects of the Holocaust, the scars remind them of triumph. For Black America, racism is a reminder of their victimhood.
I often review and think of the years of pain and suffering that our people have gone through. Indeed, like Sen. Shehu Sani opined on 20 December, 2022, “No part of Kaduna is spared of terrorists’ attacks, violence and kidnappings. However the killings in Southern Kaduna by terrorist groups is systemic; the people of that part of the state are also institutionally treated like the blacks under apartheid South Africa” (Emphasis mine).

The years of suffering and persecution in Southern Kaduna go way before the 1980s to the time when our mothers, sisters and forbears were carted away as slaves and forcefully married in Zazzau while harvested agricultural products in farms and barns were forcefully seized and used as fodder to feed the animals of slave masters. Amidst these oppressions, Southern Kaduna people fought and refused to be a conquered territory.
For those who may just have joined the story in recent times, the overwhelming nature of the painful experiences our people now suffer, may seem isolating and frustrating enough to make them say like the Prophet Elijah ‘…everyone else abandoned the covenant and I am the only one left’; but that would be factually false because our forebears battled and worked so hard to get us to where we are today.

Indeed, the ground we stand on is hallowed ground. It is the sum total of the struggles of our founding fathers and mothers who through bitter days of slavery and domination built a region, broke the shackles of slavery and insisted on their true cultural identity. They through communal, missionary and church efforts, established schools and institutions and handed unto us the baton to run our race with perseverance, to win where they failed, to rise from the ashes and square up our chests in full confidence of our identity as God’s own people and as a region that never says die.Now that the baton is in our hands, we cannot afford to fail our forebears.

BUILDING FROM THE RUINS.

I have often imagined a day when the woes of Southern Kaduna would come to an end; when our people will no longer be judged by where they come from but by their capacity and the content of their heart and brain. What has now become clear to me is that if we have to wait for that day to see our redemption, many of us may never get to that Promised Land as was the case for Moses and his peers. We must therefore continue to build in spite of our circumstances rather than wait until fair winds come. Flowing from that stream of consciousness and the lessons that History present, I make the following suggestions:

1. We must build a region where faith is anchored in character as opposed to empty religiosity. In a world that is increasingly becoming sullen and despicable in vices, we owe it as a duty to demonstrate faith through virtue and to be a people of substance who are known to be resolute in principles.
2. We must continue to invest in the two sectors that are our natural forte: Agriculture and Education. It is now difficult to get to the farms but our people must continue to device means to farm to feed and stay alive on safe lands while combatting the terrorists. Permit me to dwell a little longer on education. In their book, The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History; Jewish authors, Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, explained why the Jews, a relatively small population, specialize in the most skilled and economically profitable occupation. They put it to one principal factor: Education. Through education, the Jews have conquered the fields of law, science, medicine, trade, commerce, entreprenurship and scholarship. Nelson Mandela also recognized education as a great vehicle to bring equality of opportunity when he said “ Education is the most powerful weapon which you can change the world…because a good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination but when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something special.”

We must therefore invest in education so that our fortunes are not just tied to our local circumstances but we become global citizens. This really was the sense by which the missionaries built schools and our fathers and mothers were able to leave the villages and compete with their peers in the cities. Today, that Southern Kaduna does not immediately appear as many of the children and young persons have no access to basic quality education. Every compound has at least, a literate person, this means the measure of education in each compound should be diffused to those who have not. It is time for a campaign for education to be shared and for local schools to be supported. Each one should teach one.

3. We must insist on our identity and culture. Cultural rights are human rights recognized in International Law and Covenants and the Nigerian Constitution. (See Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sections 21 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). It is therefore criminal and a violation of rights for any government to change the names of chiefdoms or the identity of a people, desecrate their cultures or balkanize their identities. We must instill in our people pride in our identity and imprint in the children the assurance that we are enough. This means we must refuse to be named by what anyone thinks we are and lay hold of the original identities of our people and our lands. Traditional titles at all levels should be in our dialects and not in another external tribe. This is how a people define who they are and stamp it on the sands of time.
4. Hate and Violence must be banished. We cannot afford for today’s victims to become tomorrow’s combatants. Any region that has known perpetual violence has to consciously work to recalibrate against being defined by it. Moses as a deliverer in the Bible had to flee from Egypt on account of a Hebrew turning against a Hebrew. Black America battles with street violence and while there has been a long history of Black Americans being brutalized and killed by White policemen as was the 2020 case of Black American George Floyd being killed by White Police Derek Chauvin, we see a recent ugly twist: On 7 January, 2023, Black American Tyre Nichols was beaten by five black American Police men and was hospitalized in critical condition until he died three days later. We often know what to say when those who come against us are external enemies but what can we do when Cain kills Abel? It is the reason why faith, character and scholarship must be our guiding light as we try to navigate this present darkness.
   

CONCLUSION

We are not hopeless. When we weep, we must not mourn as though we have no God. We may be pressed but not crushed; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We are God’s own chosen people and must pass down to those coming behind us, the faith we so graciously received, the value of education that would make them global citizens and the full complement of who we are- a people who neither shrink nor bow to injustice, a region that does not only survive but thrives. So let us turn a new page, not of lamentation but of hope because as scripture tells us, hope does not make ashamed.

DSS arrest of Sufin Zamani for song that suggests ‘Hausa actresses don’t stay in marriage’ is unconstitutional, illegal:- says HURIWA

Hausa singer, Sarfilu Umar Zarewa, better known as Sufin Zamani, has been arrested and detained by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and this is being described by the Prominent Civil rights advocacy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) as an affront to the constitutionally guaranteed human rights of the arbitrarily detained musician. The Rights is therefore advocating his release without ant further waste of time. 

The group said if anybody feels that his song has labelled the person, then such a person should Institute a civil suit and not to report to the use of the Department of State Services to do such a civil matter when Nigerians are now being bombarded by terrorists which should be the priority of the DSS and not get into such petty civil matter. 

HURIWA recalled that the musician Zarewa was reported by authorities of the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) for putting out a record titled ‘Matan Fim Ba Sa Zaman Aure’.

The title suggested that “Northern actresses don’t stay in a marriage.”

Kannywood actresses alleged that it was derogatory to them.

HURIWA recalled  that In a statement signed by Al-Amin Ciroma, the national PRO of MOPPAN, the association said a complaint letter was written to it by Wasila Isma’il, the veteran actress, on behalf of other women in the industry.

It said they demanded justice from the leadership of the association over a record done by Zarewa. The statement also quoted Wasila as saying that the women felt insulted by the lyrics of the song.

MOPPAN stated that Ahmad Sarari, the national president of MOPPAN, thereafter ordered an investigation to be carried out.

HURIWA however condemned the arrest of the Musician by the Department of State Services and has asked the Director General of the Department of State Services Alhaji Yusuf Magagi Bichi to order his officers to free the illegally detained musician forthwith and profusely apologise to him over the flagrant violations of his human rights because HURIWA said in as much as he did not name any particular Actress in the said song, arresting him for manifesting and celebrating the fruits of his creative tendencies and talents amounts to anti-intellectualism, unconstitutional,  illegal and primitive just as the Rights group reminded the DSS that Nigeria is a constitutional democracy and not a dictatorship or theocracy.  

HURIWA is praying the DSS to get busy by arresting and crushing all the armed terrorists destroying lives and property of the citizens. 

HURIWA cited relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution to affirm that the DSS has committed egregious breach of the constitutional rights of this illegally detained Hausa Musician thus: “35.  (1)  Every  person  shall  be  entitled  to  his  personal  liberty  and  no  person  shall be  deprived  of  such liberty  save  in  the  following  cases  and  in  accordance  with  a  procedure  permitted  by  law  –   (a)  in  execution  of  the  sentence  or  order  of  a court in  respect of  a  criminal  offence  of  which  he has been  found  guilty; and 39.  (1)  Every  person  shall  be  entitled  to  freedom  of  expression,  including  freedom  to  hold  opinions  and  to receive  and  impart ideas  and  information  without interference.”

HURIWA has therefore called for the immediate,  unconditional and swift release of this Nigerian Musician and with great deal of apologies and compensation. 

NNAMDI KANU: NIGERIA, NOW A BANANA REPUBLIC- SAYS HURIWA

The Prominent Civil rights advocacy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed disappointment and utter dissatisfaction with the refusal of the presiding judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja division Her Lordship Justice Mrs. Binta Murtallah-Nyako to exercise her constitutionally permitted discretionary power to grant bail to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu few days after President Muhammadu Buhari said Nnamdi Kanu wouldn’t be granted bail in what appears like Executive versus Judicial gang-up against the defendant. 

HURIWA said as a civil Rights body, it is dismayed that the Honourable Judge of the Federal High Court did not even make reference to that extrajudicial comments of the head of another arm of government President Muhammadu Buhari that the first defendant in a suit between the Federal Government and a citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu wouldn’t be granted bail but she proceeded to do exactly as stated by President Muhammadu Buhari as if to say that the judiciary is subservient to the executive arm of government.  HURIWA is appealing to the judiciary to safeguard her independence to avoid encouraging Nigerians to resort to self help measure if they perceive that the judiciary does the bidding and execute the scripts authored by politicians in the office of President Muhammadu Buhari. 

HURIWA in a media Statement in reaction to the reported rejection of the bail application filed by Nnamdi Kanu who has spent a year in pre-trial detention with the Department of State Services (DSS) said it was disturbing that President Muhammadu Buhari who instituted the matter against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his organisation seems to be adopting underhand tactics to cajole another independent arm of government-the judiciary to do her bidding as against the clear provisions of the Constitution on separation of powers as provided for in Sections 4, 5 send 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended. 

Besides, HURIWA said it is unclear why a citizen would spend a year in prison whilst undergoing trial for charges that the Federal Government has not adduced irrefutable proofs but there are top government officials who looted public treasury to the tune of nearly #200 billion per person which endangers national security but such alleged ‘thieves’ are on bail even when the offence of such a large economic sabotage of Nigeria is the reason why insecurity has overwhelmed the current administration whereas the charges against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is bordered on alleged use of inflammatory language against the person of President Muhammadu Buhari who is only one out of over 200 million Nigerians.  

In a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA recalled  that the detained Prisoner of Conscience Mazi Nnamdi  Kanu is currently facing a seven-count charge, had in the application he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, equally challenge the revocation of the bail the court earlier granted to him.

HURIWA said that He Mazi Nnamdi Kanu specifically urged the court to set aside the order it made on March 28, 2019, which not only issued a bench warrant for his arrest, but also gave FG the nod to try him in absentia. The IPOB leader told the court that contrary to FG’s allegation that he jumped bail, he said that he fled for his life after his home town at Afaraukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, was invaded by soldiers, which he said led to the death of 28 persons. Contending that he was denied fair hearing before his bail was revoked, Kanu, attached eight exhibits that included photographs, as well as an affidavit he deposed to from Isreal after he fled from the country.

HURIWA sadly recalled that whilst  dismissing the bail request on Tuesday, trial Justice Binta Nyako, said she was not satisfied with the reason the IPOB leader gave for his failure to appear in court for continuation of his trial. The trial judge noted that from records of the court, Kanu, was represented by his lawyer on the day his bail was revoked, likewise his sureties.

“In fact, he sureties told the court that they did not know the whereabout of the Defendant and even applied to be discharged from the matter.

“Therefore, the Defendant was not denied fair hearing”.

Besides, Justices Nyako held that though a court could vacate a previous order when confronted with a cogent and verifiable reason, “in the instant case, I have not been given any, neither have I been given any reason to set-aside the order.

“The present application amounts to an abuse of court process for attempting to relitigate an issue already decided by the court. “If the Defendant is dissatisfaction, he has the Appeal Court to go to.

“This application is accordingly dismissed”, Justice Nyako held.

HURIWA said although it is not in her place to determine for the presiding judge how to discharge her constitutional obligations but the Rights group said the unfair treatment of Nnamdi Kanu because of where he comes from is against Section 42(1) of the Constitution which absolutely makes discrimination unacceptable and unlawful just as the Rights group said the accusations of diversions of humonguous quantum of public cash which should ordinarily attract the dead penalty is treated with indifference by the judiciary particularly because most of those being accused are of a particular section of the country and are considered to be in the good books of the ruling party- All Progressives Congress which the Rights group said makes Nigeria appear like a rogue entity. 

The Rights group bemoaned the ugly fact that four days ago in far away Rwanda,  President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as ruling out the bail option for Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The President said Kanu’s continued detention is an opportunity for him “to justify all the uncomplimentary things said against Nigeria while he was in Britain.”

Buhari said this at a bilateral meeting with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on the margins of the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the president said, the Federal Government may not grant the IPOB leader such a privilege anymore considering the fact that he had jumped bail earlier.

“He felt very safe in Britain and said awful things against Nigeria. We eventually got him when he stepped out of the United Kingdom, and we sent him to court. Let him defend all that he said there.

“His (Kanu’s) lawyers have access to him. Remember he jumped bail before, how are we sure he won’t do it again if he’s admitted to bail?” Buhari was quoted to have said.

HURIWA said the extra legal attempts by President Muhammadu Buhari to coerce the judiciary to do the bidding of his whims and caprices shows that indeed Nigeria is not just a Banana Republic but a full dictatorship. HURIWA said the Judiciary under section 6 enjoys the judicial powers of the state just as the Rights group said under Section 36(5) every accused person is deemed to be innocent in the eyes of the law. HURIWA urged Justice Binta Nyako to issue a gag order banning President Muhammadu Buhari and his aides from interfering in a matter pending before her Court unless what we are being told is that President Muhammadu Buhari is now the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. 

Closure Of Dei-Dei Market And Letting Okada Riders Who Are Mostly From Niger Republic To Operate Is Apartheid: HURIWA Tells FCT Minister

Frontline civil society group:- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the minister of FCT Malam Muhammad Bello to re-open Dei- Dei market, find a way to rebuild the infrastructures destroyed by commercial motorcyclists in a fracas yesterday Wednesday or ban the operation of commercial motorcyclists in Deidei and Kubwa for justice, equity and fairness. 
The Rights group said it is offensive to the principle of natural justice that two parties were involved in a fracas but the authority rather than make peace and create harmony and reconciliation decided to back one of the combatants because of religious motive. HURIWA said the role of a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is that of service without bitterness or sectionalism since ministers are appointed for all of Nigeria. 
“We do not want to believe that it is true that the FCT Minister who is a Nigerian will adopt controversial and unnatural steps that offends the commercial interests of his fellow citizens and let off the motor cyclists who are largely illegal aliens from Niger Republic, Chad and just a sprinkling of moslem Northern Nigerians only because traders at Dei Dei market that fought with Okada riders are mostly Igbos from Southern Nigeria and are Christians by faith Orientation.
“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari who constitutionally is the governor of FCT to ask his subordinate the FCT Minister to adopt solution that won’t be seen as favouring a party in a fight by two parties only because the favoured party are almost 100 percent Moslems sharing same faith system with the minister. Leadership is not to bow to religious or ethnic sentiments. leadership must be altruistic, nationalistic,  just, fair and equitable and the Minister who has worked harmoniously with peoples of all faith systems and ethnicity for years, should not now be remotely connected to this sort of story of open but shameful partiality and crude biasness.”
HURIWA recalled that the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has ordered the immediate closure of the Dei-Dei International Building Material Market following yesterday’s violence which claimed four lives.
Trouble started at the market when an unidentified female trader reportedly fell of a commercial motorcycle and was crushed to death by an articulated vehicle.
Other traders from the market then burnt the motorcycle blaming the biker of reckless riding. Their action however prompted a reprisal from okada riders in the area who regrouped in large number and went into the timber section of the market and set it ablaze.
The FCT Minister while inspecting the scene of the incident with FCT Commissioner of Police Sunday Babaji, the Director State Security Services, alongside other sister security agencies and top officials of the FCT Administration, directed for the indefinite closure of the market.
Bello directed the community and the market leaders to fish out the hoodlums responsible for the crisis.
He said, “The community and market leaders must fish out hoodlums and bad eggs among them, unfortunately this time around hoodlums carry arms and they shot innocent people. As a matter of fact, I saw four corpses this is very sad and totally unacceptable in Abuja.
“We have agreed with security agencies that full scale investigations will be done, and the communities have to be part and parcel of the solution or else there will be no peace. In the interim the timber market and the surrounding markets, including all the activities along the road that have clustered it and made it unpassable will all stop untill the technical team reviews everything, and then we will take the next decision.
“I am appealing to other communities within the FCT that there is no tribal or religious misunderstanding because all the leadership of various communities have lived here in peace for many years. This is simply the matter of criminals and hoodlums taking the laws into their hands” he said.
On his part, the vice chairman of Timber Shed market Dei-Dei, Ifeanyi Chibata told the minister and his team that about 45 to 50 shops were burnt with 25 vehicles set ablaze during the unrest.
The secretary Tomato and Onion Sellers Association Dei-Dei, Dahiru Garba Mani disclosed that four persons were killed during the clash in the market.
They both appealed to the minister of FCT to make provision for a police division with adequate personnel.
HURIWA has however asked the minister to rescind his decision which is offensive to Constitutionalism, equity, fairness and equality before the law of natural justice and respect to human rights of all. 

HURIWA TO GOV. TAMBUWAL, SOKOTO COLLEGE MANAGEMENT: YOU HAVE BLOOD OF DEBORAH IN YOUR HANDS

… Carpets President Muhammadu Buhari’s conspiratorial silence on the STONE AGE BARBARIC MURDER OF DEBORAH SAMUEL YAKUBU

Frontline Civil rights advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the conspiratorial silence for over 24 hours of President Muhammadu Buhari over the brutal hacking to death of a 200 level Christian Student of the Sokoto College of Education Miss  Deborah Samuel Yakubu by Islamic extremists in the school over alleged blasphemy.

Warning that reprisals may become inevitable  if the case of murder of Deborah in Sokoto is swept under the carpets like similar cases of murders of Christians over alleged blasphemy  by Islamists in Kubwa Abuja and twice in Kano State, the Rights group told Sokoto state governor Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and the hierarchy of the ill fated school that the blood of the innocent Christian girl murdered in broad daylight is on their heads and generations unborn won’t forgive them for seemingly ominous inaction. HURIWA is by this statesman urging that the strongest deterrent action provided by law is applied against these killers of Deborah who are even captured on video recordings or else the Federal Government has unwittingly authorised that reprisals should occur and these violence will do Nigeria no good because religious violence could lead to a civil war. 

“HURIWA is very much aware, that President Muhammadu Buhari did not mince words to condemn Indigenous Peoples of Biafra(IPOB) even without any scientific evidence linking them remotely or otherwise to the gruesome and despicable beheading of the soldiers’ couple massacred by unknown gunmen reportedly on their way to a traditional wedding in the South East of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari even gave order that the killers be hunted down and dealt with decisively by military forces.”

HURIWA continued thus: “President Muhammadu Buhari did this aforementioned hurried but generally hasty reaction because the perceived or suspected killers are Igbos, an Ethnicity that his administration has treated with the short end of the stick for not voting for him in 2015 and 2019. But since over 28 hours that a Christian student of the Sokoto College of Education Deborah Samuel Yakubu was lynched by Islamic students for alleged blasphemy, President Muhammadu Buhari has maintained conspiratorial silence as if the innocent blood that was shed by the Extremists is not that of a human being. This same hypocrisy of conspiratorial silence was noticed with the Sokoto State governor who stayed away from taking action but secretly sent his commissioner for higher education to speak on the murder. We in HURIWA want to let him Tambuwal and Buhari know that so long as there is no justice for this murdered Martyr Miss Deborah Yakubu, her innocent blood is on their heads”. 

HURIWA condemned the  management of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto for standing by and for doing next to nothing whilst the riotous Islamic extremists within the students body descended on their fellow Students and killed her like a chicken but only made timid announcement of the so-called indefinite closure of the institution after a female student was reportedly killed for alleged blasphemy.

HURIWA said it is preposterous that the late student, believed to be a Christian, was stoned to death and burnt just because she was reportedly  said to have attributed her academic excellence to Jesus and rankled by her response, she was asked to withdraw the statement — to which she refused even as her refusal to apologise made the mob attack her and then set her body ablaze. The Rights group wondered when Sokoto has become an Islamic State when section 10 of the Constitution recognises Nigeria as a SECULAR STATE whereby no RELIGION IS A STATE RELIGION.”

HURIWA quoted a source as stating that “She (Deboraj Yakubu Samuel) was having an argument with some of her schoolmates over their ongoing examination and when she was asked how she managed to pass her exams, she said it was Jesus,” the source was quoted as saying. “She was asked to withdraw the statement and apologise which she refused. “The school security intervened, and took her to their post but they were overpowered by students after which she was killed in the process. After killing her, her body was burnt on the school premises.” Reacting to the incident, the college directed all students to vacate its campus immediately.

The college said thus: “Following today’s early morning Students rampage in the college, the college management has resolved to close down the college indefinitely with immediate effect. Consequently, all students are hereby directed to vacate the College campus immediately (12th may, 2022),” the statement read.

HURIWA in a statement by Conrade Emmanuel Onwubiko its National Coordinator however blamed the management for not adequately providing her security by failing to call for police and military beef up but simply sacrificed the Christian Student at the altar of religious extremism and hypocrisy. 

HURIWA said religious pluralism and freedoms have suffered organised criminal attacks since President Muhammadu Buhari who before he won election in 2015 supported the introduction of full shariah law in Northern Nigeria, became President but nobody who killed Christian has ever been known to have been punished in accordance with the law of Nigeria thus creating the impression that the laws of Nigeria are not meant to be effective in the core Moslem North. 

HURIWA condemned the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for reportedly debunking his initial condemnation of the dastardly act of killing by the Extremists of Deborah just as the Rights group said Atiku Abubakar has a terrible record of not intervening when Christians are killed by his kinsmen but yet he hopes to win the votes of Christians as he seeks the ticket of the opposition PDP to become their Presidential Candidate this month. 

HURIWA dismissed ATIKU ABUBAKAR as someone who lacks principles and is perpetually afraid of Islamic fundamentalists thus creating the image of himself as a Moslem bigot. ATIKU ABUBAKAR DENIED EVER CONDEMNING THE KILLING OF THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN GIRL DEBORAH IN SOKOTO BECAUSECISLAMISTS THREATENED HIM ON HIS FACEBOOK AND TWEETER NOT TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR HIM. LET US ASK ATIKU ABUBAKAR,  IF YOUR DAUGHTER IS AT THIS RECEIVING END OF THIS BARBARIC MURDER,  WILL YOU OREFER THE SO CALLED VOTES OF THE LAWLESS ISLAMISTS OR WILL YOU STAND BY THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION WHICH IN SECTION 36(5) GUARANTEES FAIR HEARING TO ALL ACCUSED PERSONS SND SECTION 6 CONCEDES JUDICIAL POWER OF THE FEDERATION TO THE COURTS OF COMPETENT JURISDICTION LOSTED THEREIN? WE ASK PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI,  IF ONE OF YOUR DAUGHTER IS THE ONE TREATED LIKE A CHICKEN LIKE DEBORSH OF SOKOTO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, WILL YOU MAINTAIN CONSPIRATORIAL SILENCE AS IF YOU ARE NOT ON THIS PLANET WITH US?”

HURIWA tackles Lagos police over baby caught with dispatch rider, alleges cover-up

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria(HURIWA), on Monday, faulted the Lagos State Police Command over its stance on a 10-month-old baby caught with a dispatch rider, Williams Tadule, in the Sangotedo area of the state.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, alleged that the police is trying to cover-up the suspected abduction of the lad to give an untrue impression that Lagos is safe whereas it is not.

A video had gone viral last week with a mob descending on Tadule for hiding the baby in question in his delivery box but the police on Monday said the dispatch rider got the consent of the baby’s mother, Lovina Biturs, to take her 10-month-old baby away.

According to the police, Tadule and Bitrus were neighbours and the baby was fond of the rider.

“To pacify the baby, his mother allowed him go with the rider,” said police spokesman in Lagos, Adekunle Ajisebutu, noting that the baby caught with the rider was not stolen.

But HURIWA faulted the police, stating that the narration defied logic.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The Lagos State Police Command must go back to their scriptwriters because the script released justifying the dispatch rider’s custody of the baby looks like a Nollywood movie.

“The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, must answer the following questions:

“Who on earth will keep a 10-month-old baby in a courier box without access to air except a criminal and kidnapper?

“With the delicate and the exposed manner of motorbikes, who on earth will allow a 10-month-old baby go on a bike with a neighbour just to pacify him save an accomplice?

“There is more than meets the eye in this case. The police must quit attempt at repackaging and explaining away crimes. The police must stop its attempt at image laundering to protect its failures to secure lives and property in Lagos and all over the country.

“Recall that a Bus Rapid Transit passenger, Oluwabamise Ayanwole, was recently brutally murdered by her abductors who later dumped dismembered her body on the Carter Bridge by Ogogoro Communityin Lagos.

“Also, masked gunmen kidnapped Air Vice Marshal Sikiru Smith (retd.), in the Ajah area of Lagos in September 2021 but later released him after ransom was paid.

“The Lagos police must realise its failures as the security situation in Lagos further worsens and rise up to launch a renewed war against the criminals rather than explaining away crimes.”

HURIWA further called on the Federal Government to enforce stringent legal frameworks and sanctions against crimes targeting kids such as baby’s factory, kidnappings, sexual molestation of children, murders, etc.

Recall that five-year-old pupil, Hanifa Abubakar, was recently mutilated and killed by her Kano State-based school proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko, who was supposed to protect her.

From Kankara in Katsina State to Kagara in Niger State, Chibok in Borno State, Dapchi in Yobe State, amongst others, school children have been abducted in hundreds by marauders, married off by the bandits, and some killed. The pathetic case of Leah Sharibu is still fresh in mind.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The crimes against children and the vulnerable in the country is becoming alarming and unacceptable. The Federal Government must act fast, change the name of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to MINISTRY OF BABIES AND FAMILY AFFAIRS.

“FG must also charge the National Assembly and the 36 states assemblies to make stringent punishments for those who commit crimes against children. Recall that due to these rising crimes against children, the United Nations Children’s Fund classified Nigeria along with Somalia, Congo, Cameroon, and Niger based on countries with the highest cases of verified abductions in 2021.

“Practical measures must be taken to tackle headlong these crimes. The need for police to have a national data bank of persons caught in these types of crimes against children is non-negotiable. Repeated offenders should get life imprisonment.”

March 14, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

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