A group, Human Rights Writers Association of
Nigeria, HURIWA, has asked Nigerians to prepare to live with the harsh reality
of an unprecedented rise in organised social crime and other forms of violence
in the country.
In a statement on Sunday, the group said the
national crime prevention and combat mechanisms had collapsed spectacularly and
that there appeared to be no concerted effort by the armed security community to
step up their crime fighting game.
It was reacting to the latest prison attack
in Minna, Niger State by armed terrorists who reportedly freed over three
hundred detainees, most of whom are suspected criminals and terrorists awaiting
trial.
“Nigerians must prepare to use all legal
means to protect their sacred right to life to save themselves from the
rampaging threats of anarchists and armed brigands operating under different
guises,” HURIWA said in the statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko
and National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf.
The group said the most disturbing national
symptom of failed law enforcement and crime fighting strategy was the increase
in the violent attacks by suspected terrorists and other criminal gangs of prisons
and other detention facilities all across the country with the resultant
freeing of many hardened crime suspects and suspected armed terrorists.
It called for a comprehensive overhaul of the
prison management by the newly appointed Comptroller General of Prisons even as
government and others in the private sector must come up with funding
mechanisms to build well protected and fortified prison facilities and reform
the Nigerian prison system that is long overdue for changes in modus operandi.
HURIWA said the numerous externally-induced
prison attacks by suspected terrorists without the Nigerian Government ever
coming up with fool- proof and sustainable solution to this emerging pattern of
insidious threats to law and order portends grave danger to lives and property
of largely undefended and defenceless citizens of Nigeria in the coming year
particularly with the inflow into the larger society of trained and criminal
elements and terrorists released by their colleagues from the poorly protected
prison and detention facilities.
It said the Nigerian Government should come
up with effective joint military and mobile police protection units for the
various Nigerian porous prisons.
The group lambasted the Federal Government
and as well as the minister of Interior, Abba Moro, for consistently failing to
put in place workable mechanisms to put a stop to the embarrassing but
dangerous pastime of prison attacks by elements bent on destabilizing the
territorial integrity of Nigeria.
HURIWA also faulted the National Assembly
members for paying greater attention to their election campaign for re-election
in the coming election rather than using their legislative powers to ensure
that the current national constitution is comprehensively amended to bring into
fruition the long anticipated state police even as it has failed to bring into
effect the constitutional provision in section 220 [1] which mandates the
National Assembly and the Presidency to put in place national mechanism for the
military training of all law abiding Nigerians.
He said, ”The immediate impact of the rampant
prison breaks and violent attacks by terrorists of prisons and other detention
canters and the illegal release of crime suspects and terrorists is that life
of an average Nigerian who has no effective police protection unlike the
political appointees is that armed brigands will feast on them and their
property in the coming year and if care is not taken to put to an end this
sinister trend then the coming election will be anything but peaceful and
violence- free because these hardened suspected criminals and terrorists now on
the loose will find succour in being hired and paid hefty sums of money by
desperate political office seekers to inflict maximum violence against their
perceived political opponents.
“Sadly, the Nigerian Government does not have
any effective crime control and crime combat mechanisms other than the usual
fire brigade approach adopted to tackle each crime incident after they have
occurred. Nigerian Government must make concrete commitment to the
constitutional primary duty of providing security to lives and property of the
citizenry to avert full scale anarchy in 2015.”
www.premiumtimesng.com
Dec. 8, 2014.
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