Insurgency:HURIWA Canvass Citizens Volunteer Corps
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
* calls for support for F.G.
A democracy inclined non-Governmental organization-HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has called on state governors and Nigerians to close rank with the Federal government to enforce effective, efficient and sustainable anti-terrorism strategies to end the spate of bloody killings.
The group which expressed happiness that President Goodluck Jonathan was reportedly not the target of the intense gun-fire exchanges between armed insurgents and operatives of the Department of State Security [DSS] near the Abuja seat of power, has however asked the Federal Government to probe the incident and to also establish a permanent security watchdog patterned after the British based Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the use and deployment by security operatives against citizens in conflict with the law.
HURIWA in a statement signed jointly by the National Coordiinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf also canvassed the establishment by President Jonathan of a national corps of volunteers to be drawn from willing Nigerian adults who could be trained and deployed on short notice to assist the regular armed forces in defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria from aggressors.
The Rights group which criticized the verbal exchanges between the presidency and some Northern governors on the causes of the ongoing armed insurgencies in Northern Nigeria, asked both parties to actively partner together to save Nigeria from imminent threats of collapse posed by the armed insurgents and suspected armed Fulani Herdsmen and other armed foreign mercenary given that both the President and state governors have sworn to constitutional oaths of office to preserve and protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) stated thus; “We demand the transparent investigation of the sporadic shoot out that happened near the seat of power on Sunday. The one sided version of the Department of State Security (DSS) regarding the immediate cause of the intense exchanges of gun shots should not be regarded as sacrosanct because as a democracy, government is obliged to fully investigate such situations that have resulted in lost of lives whether they are armed insurgents or armed security operatives”.
“Nigerians are also constitutionally entitled to balance, objective and fool-proof explanation whenever such frightening events occur because Nigerians are the real owners of the sovereignty from where government officials draw their authority and legitimacy,” HURIWA argued.