ADS 300px;height:250px
Rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of “impunity” in addressing recent killings by herdsmen in Benue and other states. Mr. Falana said the president was giving the impression of favouring one set of people against another. “I’m now bothered when leaders come out to make statements that give the impression that we either out to cover up serious criminality,” he said. “The government, the security forces know those who are carrying out these our problem. “Since 1914, this is the first time in the history of our country that any group would go around, terrorising citizens with AK-47 rifle and they have not been crushed by the state. “This regime, the Buhari administration, declared a war on insecurity in the country. He prides himself as having successfully tamed terrorism in the north-east. It crushed the indigenous people of Biafra. In the Niger Delta, a war has been waged against the militants. So, why are these guys allowed to go around killing people? Whether they are Nigerians or foreigners, you are simply giving the impression that the Nigerian state has collapsed. Because government anywhere in the world must monopolise violence. When you give that monopoly to a band of criminals, the government has failed.”
“The governments of Nigeria, including the Buhari administration, have contempt for the abuse of the human rights of the people. Why are we trying to single out killings by these bandits in this country? In December 2015, the Nigerian Army killed 347 citizens, you called them Shiites, they were Nigerians. No post-mortem exercise was conducted. The Army and the Kaduna state government buried the dead bodies in a secret grave, nobody has been brought to book. Between 2013 and 2016, 1800 people were killed in Benue state. We are being told that about 90 people have been arrested, none will be charged to court. When you have an atmosphere of reckless impunity promoted by the government, what do you expect?” Mr. Falana also attacked some government officials whose assessment of the situation he said was ‘nonsensical.’ “When you ask Mr. Audu Ogbeh what is cattle colony, according to him, a cattle colony will mean a group of ranches. Why are you using colony as if you are giving the impression in a tensed atmosphere that you want to colonise a part of the country. It’s so nonsensical. Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture “Just last weekend, I had cause to call the National Security Adviser, one Major General Monguno, please I’m under pressure from around the world to look for twelve Cameroonians that were abducted by security forces in Nigeria over two weeks ago.” He said the NSA asked him to come to Abuja for some explanations but to his surprise, Mr. Monguno left him hanging as he refused to answer his calls for days. “I travelled to Abuja. Do you know that this gentleman refused to pick my calls? For two days I was in the hotel and I asked myself; even under the defunct military junta, do we go through this? I was once detained in prison in Jigawa, my wife got a court order to visit me and she visited me. Gani Fawehinmi was once detained in Bauchi prison, the wife went to court and got a court order to visit him and his doctors. “Imagine a man is dying in prison: Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. You went there you allowed the SSS just show the man for one minute, 20 seconds. Meanwhile the wife who was shot at in 2015 who is carrying the bullet in her body has not been attended to by this government. You ask yourself what is going on. And I didn’t expect this from President Buhari in particular who had been a victim of illegal detention. When General Babangida detained him for three years, we came out to demand for his release. He has no respect for the human rights of our people and that is why this is going on.”
No comments:
Post a Comment