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Igbo group condemns killing of unarmed pro-Biafra protesters

By Joseph Onyekwere
15 February 2016   |   1:37 am
The Igbo Ekunie Initiative (IEI), comprising individuals in Nigeria and the Diaspora, has condemned the ‘heinous, barbaric and shameful massacre’ of peaceful pro-Biafra protesters who were holding prayers in a school premises in Aba. The group said such cowardly killing of unarmed protesters exercising their fundamental rights to peaceful protests only goes to confirm the…

pro-Biafrans-protest

The Igbo Ekunie Initiative (IEI), comprising individuals in Nigeria and the Diaspora, has condemned the ‘heinous, barbaric and shameful massacre’ of peaceful pro-Biafra protesters who were holding prayers in a school premises in Aba.

The group said such cowardly killing of unarmed protesters exercising their fundamental rights to peaceful protests only goes to confirm the globally acclaimed notoriety of Nigeria’s disoriented security services that more often than not, turn their guns on the hapless and defenceless citizens they are trained and paid to protect.

In a statement signed by the group’s President, Maazi Tochukwu Ezeoke, and Secretary, Lawrence Nwobu, IEI stated that it is sad for the Nigerian Army and police that have not acquitted itself in the fight against Boko Haram and other security challenges to callously murder unarmed civilians.
According to them, such action only validates the widely held notion that Nigeria has finally returned to full-blown dictatorship and tyranny.

“Consequently, the nation is once again facing human rights violations, repression and tyranny at a scale that far supersedes what obtained under erstwhile military dictators. No nation whose security services murders unarmed innocent civilians who are engaged in peaceful protests and free expression both of which constitute some of the most basic attributes of democracy can still call itself by any definition a democracy.

“We note that while Buhari campaigned on change; his idea of change has turned out to mean repression, extra judicial detentions, mass killing of unarmed civilians and other human rights abuses that characterise the dark past Nigerians laboured to escape from. It is even more shameful that while Buhari in the course of addressing the 26th AU summit in Addis Ababa urged “African nations to put down their guns and stop spending scarce resources killing our children and inflicting unspeakable horrors and unimaginable hardship on our brothers and sisters,” yet, under his watch, Nigeria has become a killing field where the guns are blazing, the army and police are killing peaceful protesters and inflicting the same unspeakable horrors and unimaginable hardship on fellow citizens that he condemned in his AU speech,” they declared.

IEI stated that a president who has no inclination for peace or dialogue and who since inception of his administration has been busy widening the theatres of conflict with killings and extra-judicial detentions goes abroad to preach peace only, in the vain hope of impressing and deceiving a global audience.
They however, said the world is wiser and the mounting human rights violations of the administration are increasingly subject to international scrutiny.

“We, therefore, use this opportunity to again call on the international community; the United Nations, Human rights watch, AU, Amnesty international, the European Union, the US state department and others to take note of Buhari’s increasing human rights violations and decimation of democratic rights and principles.

“We warn that the constant killing of unarmed pro-Biafra protesters in cold blood is a recipe for disaster that could at some point force the Biafra groups to legitimately seek self-defence and thus conflict/insurgency for which president Buhari, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Tukur Buratai, the IGP, Solomon Arase, the police commissioners and army commanders of respective units where such killings have taken place should be held responsible.

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