The Amnesty International has been warned against playing “devil’s advocate” over alleged conspiracy to destabilise the entity called Nigeria.
The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC), which handed down this warning to AI, said it was shocked over the comment by the group on the recent clash between Shiites and security personnel in Abuja.
Amnesty International had faulted the security personnel for using force against the violent group.
Reacting, however, SHAC through its Executive Secretary, Ibrahim Abubakar, at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, said it was obvious AI was working with those conspiring to make Nigeria ungovernable.
The group, therefore, called on Amnesty International to discontinue its open support for terrorism in Nigeria forthwith.
Full text of his speech below.
Gentlemen, the Save Humanity Advocacy Centre, SHAC, is disappointed but not surprised by the decision of Amnesty International (Nigeria) to become sectarian through its endorsement of the terrorist acts of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN. We are not surprised because Amnesty International has made it clear in all instances of security breaches in Nigeria that it has an agenda that is geared towards the termination of Nigeria as a corporate entity.
Amnesty International has been running an endorsement campaign for and on behalf of IMN. It exploits these campaigns to legitimize the acts of terror being committed by the radicalized IMN members without recognizing that there are victims in the criminality being perpetrated by the IMN. Rather, it is the IMN that has been painted into victimhood while the Nigerian state, its organs and agencies have been branded as aggressors when all they are doing is to protect the life and property of citizens, which is a primary responsibility of government.
Even at a time when it is taken for granted that Amnesty International cannot sink lower than it already has in supporting terrorists like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, it has successfully broken its own record at being irresponsible. On a day that IMN militants shot at policemen and killed a Deputy Commissioner of Police, other policemen, a journalist and innocent Nigerians, Amnesty International still managed to cause outrage by continuing to defend the attacks carried out by its militants.
Gentlemen of the press, even when our members and other Nigerians witnessed IMN militants attacking and shooting other Nigerians, Amnesty International, shamelessly tweeted that the Federal Government is clamping down on “peaceful protesters”.
One of the lying tweets reads, “This new crackdown is part of a shocking pattern in which security forces have used live ammunition to disperse IMN supporters who are simply exercising their freedom of expression.”
We are at a loss as to at what point invading the parliament, attacking policemen and other Nigerians became freedom of expression.
We are also trying hard to reconcile the relationship between freedom of expression and arson, in which IMN militants set vehicles ablaze in a development that did not spare emergency ambulances.
In furtherance of its propaganda, aimed at insulating IMN from retribution for its terrorist attacks in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Amnesty International accused the Nigerian police of “reckless use of lethal force” “against unarmed supporters of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN)”. Even if IMN had falsely claimed in the past that its members were not armed, their attack on the National Assembly, which killed at least two policemen, should have forced the NGO to reassess the kind of lies it is willing to tell on behalf of IMN.
An organization that has regards for truth would have known that there are videos and pictures that capture the aspects of the protests it is hiding from the world.
Amnesty International’s tweet storm about the attack not only painted IMN militants as armless but went on to lament that they were “being driven from the streets of Abuja. This marks the height of irresponsibility, one that we believe the Nigerian government should firmly censure in order for the world not to be misled into believing the lies being told by the NGO.
Had the IMN members been left on the streets of Abuja, there is no telling the extent of lives that would have been lost to their attacks. Leaving the militants on the streets would have also resulted in further damages to public property, which Amnesty International omitted to mention, even though they destroyed government facilities worth billions of naira.
The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre condemn Amnesty International in the strongest terms possible for its destabilization agenda in Nigeria and for its refusal to see beyond this agenda even when IMN has accepted responsibility a clear case which the IMN have admitted blames the AI still wants to twist the narrative. This is unfortunate and well-meaning Nigerians and members of the society demand immediate apology from AI.
We demand that Amnesty International discontinue its open support for terrorism in Nigeria forthwith. Contrary to the way the NGO is carrying on, Nigeria is not banana republic and cannot be coerced into taking instructions from Amnesty International or be scared of it IMN terrorist collaborators.
