A prominent civil rights organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked the Federal Government to declare a state of security emergency in Kaduna State so as to enforce full military measures to battle and combat the growing scourge of armed militancy and deliberate mass killings of innocent villagers in Birnin Gwari and Southern Kaduna State.
HURIWA demanded comprehensive military actions to stop these incessant killings even as it reminded the President Muhammadu Buhari that constitutionally if he can’t stop the killings all over the Country, the law demands that either he steps down voluntarily or be impeached through legislative means. “It is in the self-enlightened interest of our President that he concentrates; suspend political campaign activities for 2019 polls, and remain focused towards finding lasting practical solutions to all these killings,” it said, adding “Enough is enough Sir and posterity may record your administration as the worst in the history of Nigeria and this bad historical trajectory will inevitably rubbish any legacy the President may have erected.”
HURIWA carpeted the Kaduna State governor Mr Nassir El-Rufai for stoking the embers of hatred and instigating politically motivated violence against his political adversaries through the issuance of hate messages purportedly cursing the three Senators from Kaduna State for halting the approval of a loan of over $300 million from the World Bank.
It said that the statement credited to the Governor during a political rally last weekend was not just mere hate messages but was capable of bringing about political instability and breach of peace in the entire State since the Senators are direct representatives of the various constituencies that make up the State. The group resolved to write to the United Nations and the European Commission to demand that they place the person of Governor Nassir El-Rufai on their watch list as a serious security threat.
HURIWA also called on President Buhari, the national hierarchy of the All progressives congress (APC) which sponsored the President and also the Kaduna state governor in the year 2015 polls to take concrete and verifiable actions to stop the Kaduna state governor from further instigating targeted violent attacks against the three serving Senators from Kaduna State.
On the incessant bloodshed occasioned by armed bandits and armed Fulani terrorism, the rights group expressed displeasure that even with the strategic position of Kaduna State with nearly 35 percent of Nigeria’s military assets, armed hoodlums including armed Fulani herdsmen are operating freely and unleashing bloody violence of unprecedented level, leading to the killings of hundreds of innocent lives and the destruction of property valued at several billions.
It therefore asked the National Assembly to pass a binding resolution to compel the Federal Government to adopt a number of far-reaching constitutional measures including the declaration of a state of security emergency in Kaduna State to the full weight of the armed security forces are deployed appropriately at the flashpoints of these dastardly bloody attacks to clinically degrade and neutralise those threats to peace and security of Kaduna State. HURIWA condemned the rubber stamped Kaduna State House of Assembly for failing to use legislative measures to force the Kaduna state governor to be civil and law-abiding and to stop using hate speeches that threaten the peace and security of the State just as the rights group reminded the Kaduna state House of Assembly that the promotion of peace and security was the primary constitutional mandate given to them by virtue of section 7 of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended).
HURIWA said it is shocked beyond comprehension that the Kaduna State House of Assembly did nothing when the governor admitted paying public money to some armed Fulani herdsmen so as to convince them to stop killing the largely Christian indigenes of Southern Kaduna State. “The State Assembly against the clear constitutional provision to make laws for security and peace of the State has done nothing whilst the population of Southern Kaduna and Birnin Gwari communities is being decimated by suspected armed Islamists and bandits who may have the conviction that they enjoy the backing of the powers that be. This is sad. The National Assembly must look at the possibility of taking over the lawmaking activities of Kaduna State until such a time that peace and security are restored,” HURIWA declared.
It recalled that armed persons on Saturday attacked residents of Gwaska village in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area at about 2:30 p.m., residents of the council area just as the bandits reportedly came from neighbouring Dansadau village of Zamfara State, about 10 minutes’ drive to Birnin Gwari, as reported by residents.
The rights group said it was informed by a security source that several houses in the village of about 5000 residents were also set ablaze even as an erstwhile Birnin Gwari Local Government chairman who does not want his name mentioned for security reasons confirmed the incident to the media and described the attack as the worst in the troubled area.
HURIWA quoted the eyewitness as stating thus: “These bandits attacked the village in broad daylight and killed many people. They even killed the village Sarkin Fawa (Head of local vigilante) on his way back to the village. Nobody can tell you the exact number of people killed because even on the way to the village 15 bodies were scattered on the road. Until soldiers are deployed to the area, nobody can go there to ascertain the number of people killed. Police can’t end these killings in Birnin Gwari. We need more soldiers in the area to curtail the killings of our people.”
In the considered thinking of HURIWA, since Birnin Gwari has witnessed several attacks by bandits leading to the death of scores of people including soldiers and police officers, it behooves on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to declare a state of security emergency in Kaduna State so that verifiable and effective military measures are implemented to reverse the evil trends of targeted mass killings by a range of armed freelance killers including but not limited to armed Fulani herdsmen.
“The National Assembly must look into this grave threat to National security and compel the executive arm to enforce the laws against genocide and targeted killings,” the rights group noted.
