Hold Presidency responsible should harm come to Igbo in the North- HURIWA

A pro- democracy and non-governmental organization -HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the international community to hold president Muhammadu Buhari responsible should the Northern  youth make good their violent threats to sack Igbo from Northern states.

Besides, the Rights group has written to major embassies in Nigeria calling the attention of the global community to the well-orchestrated plot backed by the political hawks in the North to wage another campaign of genocide against the Igbo residing peacefully in Northern Nigeria.

In a statement to the media endorsed jointly by the National coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the failure of president Buhari to appoint a South Easterner as one of the service chiefs and a member of to National Defence Council is what has emboldened the sponsored Northern Youth to fearlessly and publicly threaten genocide against the Igbo should they fail to quit Northern Nigeria by October 31^st 2017.

HURIWA said there are clear evidence of high powered backing of these Northern Youth from the top most echelons of the current presidency dominated mostly by known former officials of the AREWA CONSULTANTIVE ASSEMBLY whose youth wing made the threat to force Igbo residing in the North out and to confiscate their lawfully acquired housing/business assets.

Submitting that the venue of the press conference which the threat was made being AREWA HOUSE in Kaduna is known as the symbolic political cave of core Northerners and their Political hawks.

HURIWA said: “For the past two years, we have waged relentless advocacy campaigns urging the Buhanri's government to direct top commanders of the Armed forces to stop his kinsmen the armed Fulani paternalists to stop killing farmers all over the country but the military under the direct command and control of the president has rather gone after cattle rustlers allowing armed Fulani renegades to freely roam all over the country maiming, killing farmers and destroying communities”

“Now that these Arewa Youth have unleashed a wave of hate filled threats against the Igbo race, it is shocking that 24 hours after, not one of those boys have been picked up by the military and the police. Are the security forces waiting until they have inflicted pains and destroyed legally earned assets of the peaceful Igbo people living in the North before they act belated?”

“May we use this medium to once more ask that president Buhari respects the constitutional principle of Federal character and appoint a Military officer of South East extraction as one of the service chiefs to guarantee the over 70 million Igbo people of their safety and security”.

HURIWA cited section 14(3) thus: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional group in that Government or in any of its agencies”. 

The Rights group said a situation whereby all the key Defence chiefs and the National Security Adviser to the President, all heads of security affiliated agencies and paramilitary including department of state services (DSS), Nigeria police force are predominantly from the North, does not augur well for national tranquility and fairness even as the group linked the security breaches by armed Fulani terrorists and now the threat to unleash violence on Igbo in the North to the skewed appointments of these key officers from one region and one faith group.

Faulting the hate speech from the Northern youth, HURIWA said there was nothing untoward in the peaceful agitation for self-determination by the Indigenous peoples of Biafra  (IPOB) provided they are going about their activities lawfully and moreover the international covenant on civil and political Rights recognizes right to self-determination for indigenous groups.  

HURIWA charged the security forces to arrest those AREWA youth threatening violence and prosecute them or else the Igbo should defend themselves because the Rights to freedom of movement and Right to life are constitutional imperatives. 

HURIWA recalled that coalition of Northern groups including the Arewa youth consultative forum reportedly gave all Igbo’s resident in the 19 states of the North a three – month ultimatum to quit or be forced out after the expiration of the October 1^st2017 deadline.