A Pro-democracy Non-governmental Organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATIONS OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has blamed the total collapse of efficient civil governance for the ballooning rate of organized killings.
The Rights group affirmed that the ever widening scope and sophistication of mass killings in Zamfara and other states by armed Fulani attackers and other armed freelance hoodlums engaged in serial kidnappings for ransoms are symptoms of a failed governance capacity in the polity.
The group has therefore charged President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly to suspend their subterranean campaigns for re-election in 2019 and to face the challenges caused by the expanding frontiers of armed freelance killers on rampage across Nigeria.
“We have deliberately understudied the political temperature of Nigeria at the moment and we regret to let Nigerians Know that the crop of political office holders at both the national and sub-national levels are now actively involved in hatching plots on how to manipulate the political and electoral process so as to re-emerge as the favorites in the 2019 election which is two clear years away”.
“Sadly whilst the political class in the Presidency deploy public fund and deliberately sponsor intra-party crisis within the sole political opposition party of Peoples Democratic Party and consistently undermine team constitutional independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission through serial subterfuge and blackmail to chase after selfish re-election, millions of Nigerians are undergoing life threatening attacks by a well-coordinated gangs of armed freelance attackers.”
The group cited as evidence of collapse of governance the two recent attacks of Zamfara villages in which almost one hundred persons were massacred and the armed abductions of Mrs. Emifiele the wife of Central Bank governor in Edo State (before she was rescued after heavy ransom exchange); erstwhile ministers of Environment (Mrs. Felicia Mallam) and her husband and also erstwhile Foreign Affairs Mr. Bagndu Hirse kidnapped in in Kaduna State.
HURIWA asserted that the repeated attacks of Enugu and Abia communities by armed Fulani herdsmen without any effective response from the armed security forces shows the clear lack of political will on the part of the Executive arm of government to confront these dare devil attackers just as the group has demanded immediate suspension of campaign and partisan activities by persons holding executive and legislative jobs to focus on providing efficient and effective governance.
The Rights group lamented that the Nigeria Police Force as currently constituted lacks the necessary professional competences to tackle the high rate of sophisticated crime but expressed shock that other segments of the armed security forces are deployed to embark politically motivated operations against perceived political opponents rather than ensure that these agencies enforce the rule of law in Nigeria.
“We wondered what has made the armed security forces to abdicate their statutory role to provide security to lives and property of the citizenry but are focusing all their operational resources towards intimidating and harassing perceived political opponents of the Presidency “.
“Whereas part one of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 specifically provides that the purpose of the new piece of comprehensive anti-crime law is to ensure that the system of administration of criminal justice in Nigeria promotes efficient management of criminal justice institutions, speedy dispensation of justice, protection of the society from crime and protection of the rights and interests of victims, the hierarchies of such law enforcement agencies like Department of State Services, Police, EFCC and ICPC are deployed for political campaigns of calumny and targeted witch-hunt”.
HURIWA faulted the recent practice whereby President Buhari deploys publicly funded Presidential jets to embark on political campaigns in Edo and Ondo States even as crimes of mass killings and kidnappings are allowed to fester across the country.
“These crimes do not augur well for a democracy and indeed a constitutional democracy for that matter”.
HURIWA recalled that gunmen on Sunday in Kaduna, the Kaduna State capital, abducted a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse, in front of the residence of a relation of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The incident took place in front of Alhaji Mamman Daura’s residence on Inuwa Wada area at Ungwan-Rimi, Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Daura, it was learnt, was at home with the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, when the kidnappers came fuelling speculation that the abductors might have mistaken Hirse for the former.