HURIWA CONDEMNS WUKARI, KADUNA SECTARIAN KILINGS; RESTATES CALL FOR RECONCILIATION PANEL

Disturbed by the incessant bloodshed in the Northern States of Kaduna, Taraba and other flashpoints in the North Eastern region of Nigeria, the democracy friendly Non-Governmental Organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has urged President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors of the Northern Governors forum to forget about the high intensity of the 2015 election campaign which they have inadvertently and surreptitiously started and concentrate on finding workable strategies for bringing about lasting peace in the North including possible convocaton of Northern Nigeria Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be composed of statesmen and women of high integrity drawn from other parts of Nigera and the office of the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The group expressed fear that if the mass killings and terrorism in the Northern region are not effectively combated soon rather than later, then the 2015 election may be endangered in the North and these uprisings are indeed capable of throwing Nigeria into a constitutional crisis of monumental proportion.

In a joint statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA specifically condemned the gruesome killing of ten mourners in Aduwan Village in Zango Kataf Local Government Area Council of Kaduna State by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen at the weekend; the sectarian riot that took place in Wukari, Taraba state at the weekend leading to the slaughter of scores of persons including burning and destruction of several housing property by armed hoodlums and the continuous killings of villagers in Jos South Local Governmen Area council of Plateau state also by suspected Fulani herdsmen and the retaliatory killings that have continued without the joint military task force being capable of halting these regimes of barbaric slaughter of human beings by fellow human beings in the twenty first century Nigeria.

HURIWA therefore called on both the Federal and state Governments in the affected Northern flashpoints to use the instrumentality of the rule of law to bring culprits to trial in the competent courts of law even as other confidence building measures such as peace conferences and the Northern Peoples Truth and Reconciliation Commission be inaugurated to find sustainable panacea to these orgy of mass killings and unrestraned bloodshed. Besides, HURIWA has also restated her advocacy for the total peaceful disarmament of Northern Nigeria which according to it is awash with small arms and other sophisticated weapons that are consistently smuggled from the international borders of Nigeria and Chad/Niger in the Northern flank of Nigeria.

According to HURIWA; " We have watched with trepidation and disappointment over the last few years especially since the assumption of office of the current President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan that there seems to be a carefully choreographed breakdown of rule of law and order in the entire Northern Region even as targeted killings of persons of minority religious origins have intensified without any of the Northern State Governments being able to find lasting, transparent end to these killings and systematic distabilization of the Northern Region by renegades parading around as armed terrorists. We therefore charge the current administration to do more to safeguard lives and property of Nigerians and to ensure that mass murderers are not allowed to get away with their sophisticated but cruel crimes against humanity. This Government has no choice but to enforce the law against terrorism and mass murders and must round up killers to face the full wrath of the law in accordance with the tenets and principles of the Nigerian Constitution which are binding and obligatory".

"HURIWA is of the considered opinion that the current state of impunity has engendered the near- state of anarchy in the North and the wanton destruction of lives and property of innocent citizens by armed non-state actors who have consistently escaped the long arm of the law because of the rapidly declining political will on the part of the Northern state Governors to fight terrorism and insecurity in their areas of jurisdiction even when the governors are the chief security officers of their states. On his part, President Jonathan has also failed in his sacred constitutional duty to protect the citizenry from unwarranted attacks and denial of their fundamental right to life", the statement added.