The leading civil
Rights advocacy group – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)
has condemned the reported gruesome killings of nine soldiers by suspected
armed bandits in Zamfara even as the group reasserts her total rejection of the
negotiations by Northern governors with armed bandits in Zamfara, Katsina and
Niger states.
HURIWA directly
links the killings of soldiers by armed bandits to the atmosphere of
illegality, anarchy and impunity created by the negotiations and decision to
grant amnesty to armed mass killers by some Northern state governors. The group
said it was absolutely wrong to permit a situation whereby armed freelance
hoodlums are treated like sacred cows which has now snowballed into the
mindless slaughter of our armed soldiers trained professionally with huge
public and tax payers’ fund. The Rights group said the killings must never be
swept under the carpet.
Describing the
negotiations and granting of amnesty to armed bandits as an affront to the
Nigerian constitution, the Rights group absolutely condemns the killing of
soldiers by armed bandits even as the Rights group has tasked the Zamfara state
governor and federal government to arrest, prosecute and punish the killers of
the soldiers.
“Negotiating with
criminals under any guise by state governors is tantamount to defecating openly
on top of the Nigerian constitution and the fact that the cocktails of
coordinated mass killings by armed bandits in parts of Zamfara state and other
northern states have continued unabated shows that it is foolhardy for elected
officials to fail to enforce relevant laws against terrorism and mass murders.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA hereby calls on Nigerians of
goodwill to speak up in rejection of the institutionalization of impunity and
official recklessness exhibited in the ongoing negotiations with armed bandits
by northern governors".
"We demand
that the Zamfara state government be compelled to pay #100 million compensation
each to all the soldiers killed by armed bandits in Zamfara state.”
HURIWA recalled
that armed bandits killed nine soldiers in an attack last weekend in an area of
northwest Nigeria reportedly wracked by cattle rustling and kidnappings.
HURIWA citing
available reports stated that dozens of gunmen on motorcycles last weekend
stormed a military post in the remote village of Sunke in Zamfara state and
opened fire, the sources said maintaining that "We lost nine soldiers,” a
senior military officer in the state capital Gusau, told AFP.
HURIWA recalled
that residents said the bandits attacked the troops to avenge the killing of
their comrades after the military raided their camps in a nearby forest. The
incident happened despite an existing truce between the gangs and the regional
government, they said even as Sunke, which lies 140 kilometers (85 miles)
from the regional capital Gusau, is a notorious enclave for armed gangs who are
camped out in the surrounding forest.
Relatedly, HUMAN
RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has thrown its weight behind the
just launched nationwide military exercises by the Nigerian Army just as the
Rights group urged Nigerians to support the Nigerian Army to battle the upsurge
in terrorism and criminality and by the same token, the Rights group has urged
the military hierarchy to adhere strictly to human rights provisions as
enshrined in chapter four of the Nigerian constitution.
“We are hopeful
that the chief of Army staff lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai who has
clearly demonstrated his disdain for violations of human rights will ensure the
respect of the human rights of Nigerians.”
HURIWA has
disclosed that it will be on ground in the South East of Nigeria to observe the
enforcement and implementation of the military exercises just as it appealed
for public support for the Army to rid the South East of Nigeria of kidnappers
and armed hoodlums threatening the peace and stability of the region.
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