HURIWA alleges FG undermining human rights, rule of law

HUMAN Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has alleged that human rights are under threat in the country, as Federal Government officials do not believe that terrorists should be decisively dealt with.

HURIWA called on the government to do everything to avoid giving the impression that crime pays in certain parts of the country.
Disclosing this at a media briefing, yesterday, in Abuja, the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, urged states to direct their policies towards ensuring balance in economic development.

He said: “The key government has deliberately undermined the functionality of institutions set up to tackle insecurity. All the armed security forces are now diluted and sabotaged. Economist magazine is accurate and very professional on its reportage on Nigeria in its current edition. The criticisms by the Federal Government of the British magazine are pig-headed.

“The army and Federal Government know that what the Economist alleged are factual. This is because there are documentary evidence to show that there are molested saboteurs within the military, who are undermining the war on terror. Many of such found out have been court-marshalled. Many that are yet to be found out may still be there.”

He recalled that government called the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) terrorists and went to Federal High Court through ex parte application to get the court to declare it as a terrorist group, adding that the decision was being challenged.

“Security institutions now work like sectional security outfits set up to attack those who don’t share religious and ethnic affiliations with heads of security services. Federal Ministry of justice is run like a tribal machinery.”

“We are raising this alarm that our lives as advocates of social justice are under threat because key government officials do not believe that terrorists should be decisively dealt with. We want to bring the attention of the world that the central government works to undermine the principles of rule of law and the centrality of the sanctity of the constitution. The government has taken the practice of double standards in law enforcement to a dangerous level,” HURIWA stated.