The Federal Government has unwittingly endangered Nigeria’s national security and encouraged ongoing armed insurgency across the Northern States by banned armed Islamic rebels by the reported award of juicy security contracts to secure Nigeria crude oil pipelines by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to some former leaders of repentant armed militants in the Niger Delta and therefore must be withdrawn and replaced with broader practical and pragmatic infrastructural development of the criminally neglected crude oil rich Niger Delta Regions. The Rights group tasked Government to compel indicted multinational crude oil firms in the Niger Delta to immediately clean up the heavily polluted environment and ecosystem of the oil rich region.
This was the position of the Democracy inclined Non-Governmental Organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, [HURIWA] in a media statement on the precarious security situation of the Nigerian State issued and jointly endorsed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Director, Miss. Zainab Yusuf just as the group called on the Federal Government to transparently account to the Nigerian people on the correct situation of the suspects allegedly arrested by the nation’s security agencies since the armed insurgency began nearly two years ago.
HURIWA call for open and transparent prosecution of the arrested terrorists for the mass murder of several innocent citizens is coming amid general apprehension among Nigerians that suspected armed insurgents arrested and detained by the Federal Government have not been brought to justice in the competent courts of law and if true, then this may constitute general breach to the fundamental human rights of the suspects and also capable of truncating the enforcement of constitutionalism, Principle of Rule of Law and total elimination of impunity in the country.
HURIWA insists that those armed terrorists responsible for the mass murder of Nigerian citizens must be made to face transparent, open and constitutional justice in the competent courts of law if Nigeria is to remain a law abiding and democracy inclined nation.
On why it thinks that the reported multi-million United States Dollars security contracts awarded to former militants who are of the Niger Delta origin by the Federal Government to secure the crude oil pipelines of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] constitutes a clear and present danger to national security, HURIWA submitted that as national assets the crude oil pipelines ought to be protected by the constitutionally created armed security services like the Armed Forces of Nigeria or operatives of the Nigerian Police Force and if in the event that Government makes new policy on award of security contracts to private sector institutions then Government’s action must be guided by the legally binding provisions of the National Public Procurement laws by ensuring and enforcing the provisions that obliges Government to publicly advertise any public transactions that would be undertaken by the Nigerian Government on behalf of the good people of Nigeria.
HURIWA contends that selective award of juicy security contracts to friends of the Presidency is not only a violation of established laws that protects competition and transparency but amounts to bribery of the most unprecedented dimension if not reversed immediately by President Good Luck Jonathan.
HURIWA said the selective award of juicy security contracts to former armed militants is a signal to the armed Islamic rebels who are unleashing a regime of bloody terror-related violence against national and private sector owned assets like the telecommunication masts and public schools and would induce them with the belief that one day the Federal Government would be blackmailed into awarding their members similar juicy contracts to secure those vital national and private assets in the Northern States of Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Adamawa States.
“This immoral and unconstitutional action of the Federal Government is also a boost to those armed marauders unleashing unprecedented violence in the South through targeted assassination and kidnappings for ransom payments who would also be hoping to bag juicy security contracts from the Federal Government some day in exchange for their surrender and cessation from these atrocities”.
HURIWA urged Government to reform the security agencies and national security architecture to enable the operatives to carry out effective intelligence-driven anti-terror law enforcement all across the nation without let or hindrance.
