+Canvasses Full Blown State Of Emergency In Restive Northern States
A democracy inclined Non-Governmental organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has strongly condemned the Sunday deadly bomb attack of the Saint John Catholic Pro-Cathedral in Bauchi State and called on President Goodluck Jonathan to declare state of emergency in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Kano State for six months to enable the Government take far -reaching emergency measures to combat the rising spate of targeted bomb attacks and to bring the perpetrators of the dastardly crimes aganist humanity to the competent courts of law for prosecution and sanction in accordance with the due process of the law.
The Rights Group also carpeted the Federal Government for doing nothing to improve border security to prevent illegal arms from flooding into Nigeria from the porous borders.
In a media statement authorized jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Officer Miss. Zainab Yusuf, the Rights Group asked Government to stop the sensational media celebration of the capture of suspected kingpins of the dreaded and armed Islamic Insurgents in the North but to concentrate effort towards the building of formidable intelligence of the security operatives to effectively deter the continuous bomb attacks and targeted killings of high profile Government officials and innocent worshippers.
HURIWA charged Government to ensure that the court system and the Nigerian Prison service work optimally to deliver effective and decisive justice to suspected mass murderers belonging to the armed insurgency.
HURIWA also tasked Federal Government to probe the widely held allegation that the suspected bombers arrested and detained without proper documentation and speedy prosecution may have bribed their way out of detention which may explain why there is increased rate of attacks by these terrorists.
HURIWA also blamed the Governors of the affected terror-prone states in the North of failing to play their key constitutional roles and deploy the resources of the states transparently towards ensuring the protection of lives and property of the citizenry resident in those areas.
The Rights group singled out the Bauchi State Governor of spectacular failure to protect minorities that are indigenous to the state and other Nigerians. “The Bauchi State Governor has come under intense criticism from a cross segment of the people of Bauchi State especially from the ethnic and religious minority tribes from Tafawa Balewa areas of allegedly failing to protect their consituional rights by surreptitiously undermining their representation at the state House of Assembly through the suspension on nebulous grounds of the female member representing the constituency in the Bauchi State House of Assembly”.
HURIWA also blamed the Federal Government for the total lack of national security objective in the ongoing anti-terrrism fight because according to the Group; “It is preposterous and illogical that while the members of the joint military task force are celebrating victory over the armed terrorists in the North through carefully coordinated arrest of suspected top flight chieftains of the Islamic armed Insurgency in the North, the Justice and prison sectors are in very bad shape because there are no proofs that any of the high profile suspected bomber has been sucessfully prosecuted and sanctioned by any competent court of jurisdiction in compliance with section 6 of the 1999 constitution[as aended].
“Nigerians are tired of the state sponsored media drama of ‘dubious’ victory of the Government over the bombers but will be glad to see that all those indicted and arrested for the spate of bomb attacks in the last three years that have caused the death of several thousands of innocent women, children and other citizens are brought before competent courts of law and prosecuted for these heinious crimes against humanity”.
The group condemned the Bauchi Catholic Church bomb attack as unprovoked attack of innocent persons for the mere fact that they have chosen to worship their God in accordance to their faith just as the Rights group warned the Government that people are losing patience because it is unreasonable to expect most Nigerians to fold their hands and watch their oved ones decimated and exterminated by Islamic fundamentalists while the Federal Government does nothing and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is busy travelling across the globe while the nation burns
