Concession: FG must not hand over 17 airports to cronies, HURIWA warns

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Saturday, warned the Federal Government not to hand over 17 of the nation’s airports to cronies under the guise of phantom concession.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, feared that the outgoing Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, might want to give out the airports to incompetent families and friends as parting gift as his tenure as a cabinet member ends in less than 11 months.

The group warned that such approach to concession of the nation’s airports won’t be tolerated and therefore challenged the minister to make the process as transparent and fair so that competent concessionaires would take over the nation’s airports since the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has demonstrated failure in all aspect of governance including the maintenance of the nation’s critical infrastructure. 

The minister had during the week said at least 17 airports under the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria that are currently not up for concession are going to be given to concessionaires.

The concession process for Nigeria’s four international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano is currently ongoing while FAAN manages 21 airports on behalf of the Federal Government.

But HURIWA’s Onwubiko warned the minister, FAAN, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and the National Policy on Public-Private Partnership as well as all those involved in the concession process to be guided by the principles of justice and transparency.

Onwubiko said, “The move to concession the country’s 17 airports yet to be concession is testament to the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in the management and maintenance of Nigeria’s critical assets which he met on ground when he came into office in May 2015.

“Sadly, seven years later, the President and his appointees including the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, have moved to hand over Nigeria’s assets to private individuals.

“Whilst HURIWA reckon that the gains of concession if done rightly are undeniable, we call for the integrity of the process which is highly questionable going by the notoriety of this government’s knack for massive corruption and theft of public fund with many top officials accused of fraud. 

“Electricity distribution companies that were privatised were sold to cronies of government officials and today Nigeria’s power supply system is the worst globally. 

“HURIWA fears that these airports may be sold to cronies of this government and there is no way of knowing because there are no opportunities for credible civil society organisations to understudy those companies that may bid for concession of these national assets. The aviation industry must stop being opaque and the poor transparency records must be corrected.”

June 18, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

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

ASUU strike: Sack Buhari for endangering national security, HURIWA tells NASS

…Says APC should clear N1.1 trillion ASUU demand from nomination form sale

Foremost civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Wednesday, lambasted the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for compounding the security challenges of the country by allowing the strike by lecturers in public universities to linger to over four months since it started on February 14, 2022.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said undergraduates have been heavily harvested and recruited into crimes including terrorism, banditry, Internet fraud, prostitution, drug trafficking, amongst others, because of the prolonged industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The group therefore asked the National Assembly led by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; and House of Representatives’ Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila; to pass a no-confidence vote on Buhari and sack him.

In the same vein, HURIWA said the All Progressives Congress government was not serious to end the ASUU deadlock that has besieged the country and brought public tertiary education to a halt.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The APC-led government has demonstrated nonchalance to tertiary education in public schools obviously because the ruling class send their children to private institutions in Nigeria and overseas.

“The APC raked in over N2.5 trillion naira from its recent presidential primary alone as over 25 aspirants paid N100 million each. The N2.5 trillion is excluding trillions gotten from thousands of governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly aspirants.

“If the party is serious about ending the ASUU strike and saving its President, Muhammadu Buhari, from ignoble shame, it would have given just N1.1 trillion to ASUU to end the strike. But unfortunately, we have shameless people in power both at the APC top echelon and the Federal Government.”

ASUU led by Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, had on February 14, 2022, said its fresh industrial action came on the heels of the government’s failure to satisfactorily implement the Memorandum of Action it signed with the Union in December 2020 on renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, Earned Academic Allowances, funding for revitalisation of public universities, withheld salaries, amongst others.

Before this year, students of public universities had also been at home for nine straight months in 2020 when ASUU and the Federal Government had a face-off over unpaid areas, choice of payment platforms, amongst other contentious issues.

According to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the government had paid about N90 billion from the over N1.1 trillion demanded by ASUU for revitalization and earned allowances.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko noted, “We call on the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari for letting the ASUU strike linger thereby endangering national security. Everyone knows an idle hand is the devil’s workshop. This is why is not imaginable that some undergraduate youths would have gone into sophisticated crimes such as kidnappings, cultism, terrorism, drug trafficking, amongst others. 

“The government’s inability to resolve the industrial crisis in the public universities whereby over 70% of youths attend because they are from poor backgrounds is a direct declaration of war on the youths. 

“HURIWA, therefore, urged the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to be a man now that he couldn’t get his promised presidential candidacy from the cabal in Aso Rock. He should do the needful and etched his name on the sands of time by impeaching the President. 

“HURIWA will subsequently write to all Western Embassies to urge them not to admit children of governors,  ministers and the President for any academic programmes in their nations until the ASUU strike is permanently solved.

“Also, the National Association of Nigerian Students must sustain public protests and not cave in to intimidation and money-based aluta. They should not eat their future like Esau.”

June 15, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

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

HURIWA slams Buhari over constant grid collapse, says seven-year failure shameful

…demands power minister sacking over inefficiency

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Monday, lambasted the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over the constant collapse of the national power grid for the past seven years since he came into power in May 2015.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, described as shameful and sign of a failed leader, the widespread blackout that besiege Nigerians all the time due to the collapse of Nigeria’s electricity grid. HURIWA lamented that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is mishandling the electricity power sector like a bunch of infants groping in the dark and wondered what has become his campaign promises to revive the electricity power sector even as the Rights group has now asked President Muhammadu Buhari to restore the Power sector to the stage that it was in 2015 before his incompetent government came on board. 

The group demanded the sacking of the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, for inefficiency especially with the fifth collapse of the national grid in 2022 alone.

There was widespread blackout across the country on Sunday following the collapse of the national power grid, making it the fifth this year alone. Many electricity distribution companies alerted their users in messages across social media.

It was learnt that the grid collapse on Sunday occurred around 6.49pm, leading to the shutdown of the outgoing electricity feeders of some power distribution companies.

Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The recurring electricity power failure is unfortunate and totally avoidable. More saddening is the inability of President Muhammadu Buhari to put the right expert in place as minister due to nepotism and partisanship which is inevitably hurting and harming the citizens. 

“The World Bank just predicted that more Nigerians will fall into poverty and we think the deliberate failure of the Buhari’s administration to fix the electricity power sector due to endemic corruption will contribute massively to more joblessness as small and medium scale enterprises that rely on power supplies from the national grid will fold up and are already disengaging their staff.

“Despite the humongous amount spent on the power sector, no improvement has been made as corruption continues to cripple this vital sector.

“For instance, the Buhari government has spent over N1.7 trillion on the electricity sector since 2017. In September 2021, Buhari said that Nigeria needed over $400bn to fund its critical energy needs, according to a statement quoted by Bloomberg. 

“Also, according to the World Bank, the Buhari government has borrowed a total of N1.3tn since 2017 to ensure that generation companies continue generating electricity, adding that it would cost the Federal Government an additional N3.08tn through 2023, if current performance levels and low tariffs persist.

“Alternative source of energy is also a no-go area as artificial scarcity by corrupt middlemen dictate price of fuel. Now, diesel price per litre is at over N500 now, petrol price reaching N200 per litre, and soaring cooking gas at over 300 per cent, amongst others. This is despite that under Buhari, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has spent N100 billion on the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries in 2021 despite not producing a single drop of oil.

“HURIWA call on the President to fire the heads of the different power sector related agencies including the inefficient and incompetent politician in the ministry of power as minister. Nigeria needs the best of hands; round pegs in round holes to solve the power quagmire for Nigeria to generate and distribute at least above 5,000 megawatts daily. Or did we offend God by bringing Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015 and 2019?”

June 13, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

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

British Parliamentary Debate On Terror In Nigeria: Building Upon False Narratives Whilst Blinded By Vested Self-Interest

Being a Rejoinder by Tony Nnadi on behalf of NINAS Secretariat, to the Debate in the British Parliament following the Pentecost Day Terror Attack on worshipers at a Catholic Church in Owo

– issued June 10, 2022.

Reviewing the video recording of the Debate in the British Parliament in the immediate aftermath of the June 5, 2022 Terror Attack on worshippers at a Catholic Church in Owo, the overall impression is that of a determined effort by Britain to distort, obfuscate and possibly deflect attention from the self-evident complicity of the Government of Nigeria under the watch of their ward, Muhammadu Buhari, in the widespread Campaign of Terror being perpetrated by Fulani invaders against the indigenous peoples of Nigeria. 

Guided by its own vested interests, that cock and bull Debate in the British Parliament is built on the long-disproved false narrative about farmers/herdsmen clashes, prompted mainly by the consequences of climate change. 

This false narrative avoids the true nature of what the problem is, which in the main, is the murderous Fulani Conquest Invasion as well as the complicity of the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari (a Fulani man), his Government and the high command of the Nigerian Military over which Buhari presides as Commander-In-Chief.

All the remediation actions and propositions by the British Minister taking the questions in Parliament, manifestly revolved around the jaundiced tales of the Government of Nigeria which is deeply complicit in the escalating violence. 

These contrast sharply with what the United States (US) did in getting to the root of the Nigerian terror crisis  by interfacing with the victims of the terror attacks as well as speaking with people in Nigeria who could have more insight into the nature and true cause(s) of the violence, including incidentally, myself.

I happened to be in the Delegation of Nigerians invited to the 2019 Round of International Religious Freedom Ministerial Roundtable on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, (June-July 2019) following the January 2019 Emergency Press Conferences on Nigeria at the National Press Club in Washington DC organized by a coalition of US Evangelicals, and facilitated by ICON, to call global attention to the widespread ethnoreligious killings going on in Nigeria. 

The aforementioned US Probe of the ethnoreligious killings in Nigeria, established a Fulani ethnic agenda, disguised with the garment of religion (Jihad) compounded by the complicity of the Buhari-led Government resulting in US Policy Actions on Nigeria which began with Nigeria being placed on a Special US Watch-List in December 2019 and the subsequent designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in March 2020, amongst other actions.

NINAS will make an audiovisual response to that misleading British Parliamentary Debate on the Terror currently ravaging Nigeria. 

In the meantime, the public is invited to view on YouTube, two recent NINAS Broadcasts in its Alert Series under titles:

(1) “Train Terror Attack Demands: Evidence of Government Complicity”

( https://youtu.be/nx003Uu1fHA ) 

(2) “Nigeria: The Pyramid of Evil” 

( https://youtu.be/2lHGQl8nGa8 )

which relate to the subject matter and which both predate the Owo Terror Attack.  

These two videos above speak to the backdrop of the British vested interests and complicity of the Government of Nigeria and so what we see in the aforementioned British Parliamentary debate is basically a spin of the Caliphate, being marketed by their British Principals.

Tony Nnadi

NINAS Secretariat

June 10, 2022.

PDP IS FINISHED FOR PLOTTING ANTI IGBO AGENDA-: SAYS HURIWA

A leading Pro-democracy and Civil Rights Advocacy Group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has accused the current hierarchy of the leading opposition political party in Nigeria- People’s Democratic (PDP) of engaging in a choreographed SUICIDE MISSION by hatching and implementing  active but corrosive and toxic anti- Igbo antics by withholding the zoning of the Presidency in 2023 to the South East to assuage the longstanding systematic and systemic marginalisation of the South East of Nigeria in the political scheme of things.

HURIWA also accused the Rivers State governor Mr. Nyesom Wike of inflicting irreparable damage to the sole of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by hijacking the party’s National secretariat due to the overwhelming selfish ambition he is nursing to corner the slot of the candidacy of the party for the 2023 Presidency just as the Rights group accused political weaklings amongst some corrupt minded Igbo elites of conniving with the Rivers State’s governor to plant IGBOPHOBIA amongst the highest echelons of the PDP. 

HURIWA said the fear of the unknown is driving Governor Wike’s horrific ambition to seize the Presidential slot of PDP because he is mortally afraid that should his arch political rival Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi gets the Presidential slot of the APC and wins the 2023 Presidency then certainly,  he Governor Nyesom Wike could face political persecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over alleged financial indiscretion as the governor of Rivers State since the last 8 years. The Rights also carpeted the Rivers State governor for criticising Mr. Peter Obi for quitting the heavily cash compromised PDP. 

HURIWA which commended the former governor of Anambra State Mr. Peter Obi for displaying highest sense of conviction and political principles to walk out of the collapsing political house called PDP due to the stinking CASH-AND- CARRY animalistic tendencies within the leading opposition political party the PDP which is bent on chasing away the South-East of Nigeria from her fold because having used and dumped the South East of Nigeria,  the party now wishes to become a slave of the North or of Mr. Nyesom Wike. 

HURIWA affirmed thus: “These two tendencies of Atiku Abubakar and Nyesom Wike have combined to ensure that South East of Nigeria does not get her deserved pride of place in the party they had laboured for over the past twenty years even at the risks of suffering some of the harshest policies of marginalisation and political apartheid from the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for the last 7 years because the South East has since 1999 been voting enmasse for the People’s Democratic Party”. 

HURIWA has also commended the immediate past Minority Leader Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe for abandoning the PDP because of the anti-Igbo sentiments and the antics of divide and rule just as the RIGHTS GROUP said the PDP has lost the support of the South East of Nigeria and will pay dearly for this sabotage of the political right of the South East of Nigeria.  

HURIWA recalled that the Senate Minority Leader Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe had tendered a letter to the Senate President indication that he has just resigned from his position even as this was sequel to his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under which he was elected to the Senate in 2019. Abaribe announced his resignation in two separate letters – one addressed to his Ward Chairman and the other to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, dated 24th and 26th May, 2022 respectively.

HURIWA praised the Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Mr. Peter Obi for showing courage and determination to stand for justice, truth, social and political ideological principles and for taking a long walk away from the house of scam that the People’s Democratic Party has suddenly become even as the Rights group told the PDP that its only redemption is to concede the slot of the President of Nigeria in the 2023 General election to the South East of Nigeria in line with the provisions of the constitution of the party.

HURIWA said zoning of offices by political parties is a fulfillment of Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended which speaks to the issue of respecting FEDERAL CHARACTER PRINCIPLES in the allocation of offices and projects in the federation.

HURIWA said it offends the principles of natural justice and national unity that Igbo that has one of the three largest population of Nigeria has been treated with the short-end of the stick through the connivance of the Hausa/Fulani North and some reactionary elitist elements of the South West extraction for their selfish agenda which is undermining National cohesion.   

The Backstory Of The Residents Permit For Fulani Quartered In Military Barracks In Igboland And Elsewhere In The South And Middle-Belt

Tony Nnadi, 

NINAS Secretariat, 

25 May 2022

As the LNC and its NINAS Allies blocked the first few steps of newly installed President Muhammadu Buhari to launch his FULANIZATION and RUGA Campaign after he violently took power in 2015, Buhari in some kind of exasperation, openly directed that all the bushes behind all the Military Barracks across  Nigeria (traditionally used for training exercises) should be used to as Temporary Ranches for the large army of “Fulani herdsmen” who had turned up everywhere, but who were being resisted everywhere they went, pending the establishment of the RUGA (Fulani Colonies), the Buhari Government and its Military and the National Assembly were forcefully pushing to establish across Nigeria.

The lost but found Identity/ Residents Permit from the illicit Fulani resident in the Army Barracks at Ohafia is evidence that the said Buhari directive was carried out, and an unquantified number of Fulani invaders are now ensconced in the bosom of Military Barracks across Nigeria.

It would be recalled that sometime in 2021, there was an incident in Okitipupa where a large convoy of buses had brought in  and discharged Fulani young men into the Army Barracks there, prompting widespread alarm by local vigilantes and indigenes who had been rebuffed and turned back as they sought explanations from the Military Base where these Fulani passengers were taken into. The story was all over the internet at the time.

I made this note to alert us that while we distract ourselves with the feel-good noise of “Biafra Nation” and “Yoruba Nation” and impede the task of the strategic pushback required [for that wanted  Self-Determination], our adversary is digging in and deep into our midst in a manner that further compromises our already precarious security situation.

For the non-Caliphate rest of Nigeria, with the complete DELEGITIMIZATION of the 1999 Constitution already accomplished by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) the only viable remediation strategy on the Table right now, against the unfolding catastrophe of Fulani murderous conquest invasion is the immediate ENFORCEMENT of the December 16, 2020 Constitutional Force Majeure (CFM), to immediately render the presence of the Fulani, in and out of uniform, ILLEGITIMATE and UNTENABLE throughout the Alliance Territories, until the Union Dispute raised by that CFM is resolved by REFERENDUMS.

Faster than any other mechanism, it is also this enforcement that will IMMEDIATELY activate the armed Self-Defence component of the right to Self-Determination currently being asserted by Nigeria’s  indigenous nationalities in a manner to upend the instant criminalization of any effort at armed Self-Defence under the defeated 1999 Constitution.

As usual, those who wish to argue are at liberty to go ahead but it is only a matter of little time for things to crystallize beyond debate, but the cost of ignorance and delay will be reckoned in blood.

UNKNOWN GUNMEN: GOV. UMAHI IS A PERSON OF INTEREST TO HELP RESOLVE THE MYSTERY- SAYS HURIWA 

Prominent Civil rights advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the elected political leaders of the South East zone in the National Assembly, the governors and traditional leaders of all Igbo speaking States to task the Ebonyi State governor Dave Umahi to kindly volunteer information that could lead to the unraveling of the faces behind the Killings in the South East of Nigeria since he has already identified the Ethnicity of the unknown gunmen. HURIWA said IGBO PEOPLE MUST DEMAND THIS INFORMATION IN GREATER DETAILS URGENTLY.

HURIWA recalled that the  Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi had reportedly the unknown gunmen terrorising southeast Nigeria and killing people as those who hail from the region and not outsiders.

Answering questions regarding the identities of the killers on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Umahi said the atrocities committed in the region were largely carried out by youths from there.

He said, “People tend to be funny at times when they say that we have been invaded by outsiders, but it is not true.

“We have people from other regions that are in the South East. There’s no tribe that doesn’t have criminality. I wouldn’t say some of these people from other tribes don’t engage in criminality.

“What I call bandits are people that engage in violence; and they are our people, South-East people. The youths, some of them are in this category.

“So, when people say insecurity in the South-East is being imported, I do not buy that. Because I am a Governor, I do security reports. We have arrested a number of these people, and it should be that they are about five or 14 per cent of those outside the South-East. If we have 90 per cent of our youths engaging in these things, you cannot say the South-East is being infiltrated.”He also said, “We engaged with some of the bandits, we made contacts with some of them. We had to say, what is your problem? If it is infrastructure, we have done that. “If it is jobs creation, we have addressed that through direct labour. The bandits are angry about the lack of what to do, and we said to them that if your only trouble is that you didn’t have formal education, there is no job for you to do.

“We put them together and said, if you will stop attacks on our strategic inf rastructure, killing of our people and attack on security agencies, we can rehabilitate you. So, we have rehabilitated a number of them.”

HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko praised the Ebonyi State governor for publicly disclosing the Ethnic identity of the UNKNOWN GUNMEN thereby ending the spectre of misidentity of these murdererous terrorists destroying the Igbo Motherland. HURIWA however said rather than engaging in media showmanship in a matter as sensitive as the terrorists destroying the South East of Nigeria,  the Ebony State governor should be challenged by all Igbo people to meet with the National security Adviser, the DG of DSS, the Chief of Army Staff and the IGP together with the governors of the SOUTH EAST REGION and Civil society leaders of South East extraction so the governor can do the South East the favour of FULL DISCLOSURE ON THOSE UNKNOWN GUNMEN HE HAS NOW REVEALED THEIR ETHNICITY AND HE MUST DO THIS WITHIN 74 HOURS OR BE TAKEN AS A JOKER. 

BUHARI GOVT BREEDING POMPOUS CORRUPT NORTHERNERS WITH SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT – HURIWA 

Civil rights advocacy group, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA(HURIWA), on Monday, lambasted the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for breeding extremely corrupt government officials especially of northern extraction who feel a sense of entitlement.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said with the gargantuan and unprecedent corrupt practices perpetrated by government officials under Buhari, Nigeria might not find money to run the next government. “It is becoming inevitable that with the highway robberies of public funds perpetrated by officials holding strategic national offices from the core Northern States like the President,  Nigeria may need to borrow from China to be able to pay the first few months’ salaries of incoming President after May 29th 2022 if this administration won’t scuttle the election  by this deliberate permission and tolerance of heightened state of insecurity in the Country”. 

The group said many occasions have suggested that Buhari’s anti-graft fight is a grand charade as the regime was only a breeding ground to purloin Nigeria’s commonwealth. “People are wondering if the Northerners holding strong positions in the central government are not looting to set up their earthly paradise elsewhere other than this Nigeria that they are running down and killing with staggering Crimes of corruption and brazen brigandage. If this proposition is incorrect, why then are Northern officials in government going ahead with massive looting even when a few of them have been exposed but nothing much by way of prosecutions have been done?”

HURIWA cited the promotion of former acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, from a commissioner of police cadre to that of an assistant inspector general of police despite that he was sacked for alleged graft-related reasons and alleged abuse of office- allegations that till now are been hidden from public view and the report of the investigative panel headed by a retired President of the Court of Appeal for which billions of public funds would have been spent,  has remained a mystery and then from the blues the main character who was dismissed from the EFCC was then promoted to AIG in retirement even when the entire South East of Nigeria got just one AIG amongst serving officers.

The group also pointed to the recent alleged graft purportedly perpetrated by another northerner in the person of the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who is being probed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for alleged fraud to the tune of N80bn and at least 17 properties in choice places in Nigeria and overseas. 

Also, according to Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, Buhari squashed a putrid egg against Nigerians’ faces with the pardon granted ex-governors of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye; and Taraba State, Rev. Jolly Nyame.

The two former governors were jailed for stealing N2.7bn in total and are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Many civil society organisations had censured the President and noted that the pardon of Dariye and Nyame would encourage corruption.

Recall also that another northerner, the then Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman, was suspended last year for alleged corruption to the tune of billions of naira but she is not prosecuted but left to flex around but not returned to her post and no words to the members of the Nigerian Public. 

HURIWA also said Nigerians must not forget that another northerner and a top police officer, DCP Abba Kyari, is in the custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for alleged narcotics-related offences and alleged corruption of unimaginable proportion also traced to international fraudster, Ramon Abass aka Hushpuppi. But government has done everything imaginable to refuse to extradited him to the USA but the same government has extradited Other Nigerians from the South to the USA to face charges over alleged fraud of less than the amount for which the disgraced police officer is being sought by the FBI by for which the Northern born AGF has done everything to undermine the extradition application of the Government of the USA.

While the United States wanted Kyari to be extradited to the US, the Nigerian government has tactically delayed him in Nigeria here, a form of protection and under the extant extradition treaty, if the application lingers for upto a year, it will become status barred meaning the suspect being sought in USA can no longer be surrendered. 

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “Nigerians are tired of the grand deception of the Buhari regime. It is disturbing how corruption has toppled the administration’s campaign promises and the fact that virtually all the top players in government are suspected of corruption. 

“Look at corruption in humanitarian affairs ministry. The corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The Accountant General’s office. Corruption in the way All Progressives Congress members bought N100 million presidential forms by proxies. Truth be told, Buhari and the APC has killed any anti-corruption it met in 2015 with the cash for tickets policy it introduced towards 2023.

“We are afraid that the country won’t find money to run the next government going by the extremely heightened levels of corruption in the APC administration. Nigerians must reject any party deep in corruption in the next election and must vote in accountable leaders.”

May 23, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

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

The World Must Speak Against Plots To Kill Bishop Kukah: HURIWA Alerts

Civil Rights Advocacy Group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has appealed to the President of the United States of America Joe Biden,  the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Congress of the United States of America to urge the Nigerian Government to take steps to stop Islamic extremists from succeeding in their subterranean and openly brazen plots to cause religious war in Nigeria by killing one of Nigeria’s most respected Christian Icon- the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese Rt.Rev.Dr.Mathew Hassan-Kukah. 

HURIWA said under no circumstances should any harm happen to Bishop Mathew Hassan-Kukah just as the Rights group said if the DSS fails to arrest the identified Islamic preachers that have made direct threats against Bishop Kukah, it should be taken as a message that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration supports these threats because the President is the Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces and the DSS operates at his beck and call. President Muhammadu Buhari would be held accountable should any harm come to Bishop Mathew Hassan-Kukah because on many occasions the President’s Spokesmen have openly accused Bishop Kukah of undermining the administration.  

HURIWA has also expressed consternation and disappointment that the Holy See has maintained inexplicable silence even as Islamic Fundamentalists are waging silent war against Christians including the recent killing of a Christian girl and a 200 level Student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education Sokoto Miss Deborah Samuel Yakubu who was openly stoned to death and burnt by a mob of Islamists in the presence of over 100 armed security forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. HURIWA has tasked the Vatican Representative in Nigeria to relate to Pope Francis about the ordeals that Christians are subjected to by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. 

HURIWA said there is now a carefully choreographed waves of attacks by armed Islamists all over the Country and especially in the North in such places as Borno, Bauchi  and Sokoto States in which these murderous extremists apparently funded by some fifth columnists working towards achieving anarchy and doom in Nigeria are now framing up Christian girls for the so-called blasphemy and these Northern States are actually supportive of these mobsters committing crimes against humanity in the name of religion just as the Rights group said the World leaders must speak up now before religious war breaks out in Nigeria. 

Specifically, HURIWA is worried that Islamic Clerics are making open and tendentious  threats to kill the most respected Christian Leader of the contemporary Times who is the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto Rt.Rev.Dr. Mathew Hassan-Kukah only because he is a voice that condemns political corruption of the Federal Government and speaks out against all oppressive tendencies of government against not just the poor Christians of Nigeria but the entirety of the poor population in the Federation. 

“We are worried that on many occasions these Islamic Clerics have been heard and seen on videos that are going viral making open threats to kill Bishop Kukah but the Department of State Services, the Police and all the armed security forces have feigned ignorance and even when their attention is called to these threats they do not take steps to arrest those issuing these death threats as if to say that those making these threats have the by-in and tacit support of the Federal government of President Muhammadu Buhari who has in anycase failed to check the expanding frontiers of terrorism waged on Nigerians by his Fulani kinsmen since the last 7 years.”

“HURIWA’S attention has been called to the video that has emerged of an Islamic cleric calling on his followers to ensure they kill the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Reverend Matthew Kukah .

This is coming days after some Muslim youths lynched a female student, Deborah Yakubu, for alleged blasphemy in Sokoto. 

Speaking in Hausa, the Islamic cleric described Bishop Kukah as “The pagans’ leader of Sokoto State. The video shared by a journalist, Simon Reef Musa , on his Facebook page, translates thus:

“The pagans’ leader of Sokoto state, Matthew Hassan Kukah, is said to have said something that I read on Facebook. Let him continue. I swear we shall kill him. We are not joking.“Let him continue. We must kill him. Let us desist from talking on this matter (killing of Deborah). She abused the prophet and may God bless the people who delivered instant judgement on her.

“Of course, there were mistakes because those sent did things they were not supposed to do. After being killed for abusing the prophet, why then engage in burning down property?”

HURIWA has therefore accused the security agents and the Federal government of conniving with armed and Islamic extremists to continue to issue threats against Bishop Kukah apparently because even the President has on many occasions insulted the respected Christian Leader for endeavouring to criticise the bad policies of the current government that has plunged Nigeria into a state of heightened insecurity and general climate of fear and reckless disregard for the sanctity of life. 

HURIWA accused the Federal Government and the Northern Government of extending tacit supports to the Islamic mobs that are burning down Churches, places of businesses of Christians  in Sokoto and the latest attacks in Bauchi over similar allegation of blasphemy as if to say Nigeria is now under a government of Islamic Mobsters. 

HURIWA recalled that a pastor has allegedly been injured and many houses burnt by irate youths who went on the rampage over alleged blasphemy in the Katangan area of Warji Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

HURIWA said trouble started when a message was allegedly circulated on social media that a Christian girl in the town allegedly engaged in blasphemy of Islam.

A source, who spoke to the media confirmed the incident, saying, “Yes, the incident is true. It is an aftermath of the incident of the alleged blasphemy that happened in Sokoto last week.

“What I learnt was that a Christian girl allegedly posted and commented on something on social media which has to do with the incident in Sokoto and that was how it started. The situation there is more than tension since many houses have been burnt down.”

HURIWA has therefore urge World leaders to act fast and put diplomatic pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to be a President for all and to give direct orders for armed Islamists causing chaos all over the Country to be brought under Control and to stop the mob killings and lynching of Nigerians in the name of any religion. 

COMRADE EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO:

NATIONAL COORDINATOR:

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). 21ST MAY 2022.

Security agencies must stop branding actors, civilians as IPOB members –HURIWA 

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Saturday, said security agencies including the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army must stop framing up Nollywood actors and innocent civilians as members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra. 

HURIWA is worried too that the African Traditional Religion is being criminalised and demonised by security forces in the South East of Nigeria who regularly invade sacred shrines, desecrate them under the guise of pursuing suspected members of the now proscribed INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA (IPOB). 

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the trend of trying to score erroneous points by detaining and branding innocent Igbo youths and prominent sons and daughters as criminals is disconcerting just as the Rights group bemoans the declining professional practices amongst members of the security forces.

The group said security agencies must forthwith release all Igbo youths falsely detained and languishing in cells and prisons all over the country.

HURIWA recalled that the Imo State Police Command arrested a Nollywood actor known as Hycent Azunna and branded him a member of IPOB’s Eastern Security Network, a claim which his friends nullified as untrue.

Also, last October, the Department of State Services and the police colluded and arrested veteran Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu, for alleged promotion of Biafra and for wearing a Biafra outfit while distributing bread and other items to the poor. He was humiliated and spent days in detention but later released when public outrage greeted his arrest. No charge was brought against him as the allegations of the security agents against him proved false.

Similarly, 21-year-old lady, Glory Okolie, was arrested last year by officers of the Intelligence Response Team in Owerri, Imo State. Okolie was arrested on June 17, 2021, the same day she was to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam.

The police as usual erroneously branded Okolie as a girlfriend of an IPOB member, subjected her to inhumane treatment like washing of their clothes, cooking and all sorts of nonsense. 

The police held on to her for months till they were forced to release her this year due to the outrage and agitation of activists, civil society organisations and human rights lawyers.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko on Saturday said, “The arbitrary arrests of youths in Owerri and labelling them as IPOB members is highly disturbing.  Now, if tenants are owing landlords, the police is bribed to frame up the tenant as IPOB and paraded and some ends up disappearing for life.

“The cases are numerous from Chiwetalu Agu to Hycent Azunna to Glory Okolie. Many like them have been persecuted and some even killed. A former Archbishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Anthony Obinna, once raised the alarm of abandoned corpses of young Igbo boys slaughtered and abandoned at Federal Medical Centres by the police.

“The infractions by police and the Army in Imo and use of extrajudicial killings must stop. Security agencies must not use Igbo youths to score points or prove to their bosses that they are working. While we encourage clamp down on criminals and ‘unknown gunmen’ turning the South-East upside down and appeal for greater use of hard core intelligence driven skills to flush out mass killers and hoodlums, HURIWA note with seriousness that the framing up of Igbo youths as criminals which is utterly nonsensical and smacks of apartheid practices and ethnic profiling must stop.”

May 21, 2022

Emmanuel Onwubiko

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