Release Sambo Dasuki, El-Zakzaky now, HURIWA asks Buhari
A civil society organisation and a pro-democracy body, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for the immediate release from detention of over two years of the immediate past national security adviser to the president, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), who is being extra-judicially detained despite obtaining two court orders from Federal High Courts of Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African Court of Human Rights (ECOWAS COURT).
The Rights group also called for the immediate release of the detained leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shiite), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, his wife and thousands of members of the hurriedly proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), just as it called for the conduct of audits of all detention facilities by stakeholders and the legislature.
In a statement signed by Emman Onwubiko National coordinator, the group condemned the alleged continued suppression and killing by armed security forces of civil protesters belonging to the minority Islamic movement of Nigeria (Shiite) who are campaigning for freedom for their unjustly incarcerated leader Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife.
Also, the group expressed consternation over the growing list of disappearances of the now proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who were allegedly whisked away to unknown detention centres by various segments of the armed security forces for months without trial in the competent courts of law.
Similarly, the Rights group has carpeted Federal Government functionaries including President Muhammadu Buhari, Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, Minister of Agriculture and Internal Affairs, Audu Ogbeh and Lt. Gen. Abdulrahaman Danbazau (rtd), for pandering to the whims of armed Fulani herdsmen by contemplating the deployment of public resources to promote private businesses of cattle rearing by establishing the illegal cattle colonies in parts of Nigeria.
HURIWA said by the provisions of the Land Use Act recognised by the constitution only state governors and Houses of Assemblies have powers over land allocations in their states even as the Rights group charged the Federal Government to stop dining and wining with suspected mass murderers but to order the armed security forces to deal decisively with terrorists and bring the full weight of the law on the mass killers masquerading as Fulani herdsmen.
The Rights group said it was unconstitutional, that instead of arresting, prosecuting and sending the convicted killers to firing squads for their horrendous crimes against humanity, government officials are debating on measures to reward the armed Fulani herdsmen with the juicy landed assets in the name of cattle colonies at public costs even when the forceful or pretentious confiscation of ancestral landed assets and donation to Fulani herdsmen in strange communities is capable of igniting long lasting asymmetric civil wars.
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HURIWA said the decision to pander to the whims and caprices of armed Fulani herdsmen through awards of landed assets to be dispossessed by government from their lawful owners is a violation of the constitutional oath of office sworn to by the President who is Fulani not to let his private affairs to interfere with his official functions.
Furthermore, it said apart from President Buhari directing the army to crush the armed Fulani insurgency, he should declare them a terrorist organization and also ensure that all those who killed Nigerians have their days in courts of law in order to avoid the institutionalisation of impunity.
