A United Nations group of experts has asked the federal government of Nigeria to punish all the northern Nigeria groups responsible for the ultimatum telling Nigeria’s Igbo minority in the north of the country to flee their homes or be killed.
The UN experts said any incidents of hate speech and incitement to violence had to be investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted and punished.
“This includes the people behind the ultimatum and those responsible for the creation, publication and circulation of the hate song and audio message,” they added.
Special Rapporteurs attached to the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner handed out the warning in a statement made available to newsmen today.
Elombah.com had reported that a northern group, the Arewa youth coalition had asked the Igbo to leave the region on or before October 1 or face violent eviction.
The threat issued three months agao was reporetdly withdrawn following national and international outcry.
The UN experts also deplored a hate song and audio message being circulated on the internet and on social media. The Hausa-language audio message urges northern Nigerians to destroy the property of Igbo people and kill anyone who refuses to leave by 1 October, the same date given in the ultimatum.
“We are gravely concerned about this proliferation of hate messages and incitement to violence against the Igbo and their property, especially considering the previous history of such violence,” the experts said.
“The Government must be vigilant, as hate speech and incitement can endanger social cohesion and threaten peace by deepening the existing tensions between Nigeria’s ethnic communities.”
The ultimatum was issued on 6 June 2017 during a press briefing by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum in the city of Kaduna. It called for sustained and coordinated campaigns to remove the Igbo population from the northern region.
The human rights experts noted that some local and national figures, as well as some media representatives, had publicly denounced any form of hate speech and incitement, but said other officials still needed to follow suit.
“We are deeply concerned that some prominent local leaders and elders have not condemned the ultimatum, hate speech and the perpetrators,” the experts stressed.
“We call on the Government, media and civil society representatives, and local and religious leaders, to reject and condemn hate speech and incitement to violence unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms.”
WWW.ELOMBAH.COM