Kidnap And Killing Of Colonel Inusa Is Cruel—HURIWA

A pro-Democracy Non-governmental organization -HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) said the forced kidnap and gruesome murder of a serving senior military officer Colonel Samaila Inusais a sad reminder of a near -fatal encounter the Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai reportedly had with some alleged armed followers of the Zaria, Kaduna based Islamic movement (SHIITES MOVEMENT) which precipitated a clash that led to the death of undetermined number of persons.

The Rights group -HURIWA has therefore demanded a comprehensive and thoroughbred forensic crime investigation of the dastardly and cowardly criminal act of abduction and assassination of the Senior Military officer Colonel Inusa to bring perpetrators and their sponsors to justice for this heinous crime against humanity.

The Rights organization said the entire scenario was almost a replication of what reportedly happened to the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai which was reported as a petition to the National Human Rights Commission and the law enforcement authority even as the venues of the two fatal and near -fatal incidents are approximately too close to call within the same axis of Kaduna State.

HURIWAsaid the possible slight difference between the encounters of the Army Chief and the now assassinated senior military officer was that the allegedly armed group that nearly attacked the Army Chief of Staff were numerous in number but the gang that reportedly kidnapped and killed the serving Colonel were reportedly few.

In a statement in which the Rights group strongly condemned the abduction and killing of Colonel Samaila Inusa as an act of terrorism and premeditated murder which must not be swept under the carpets, HURIWAsaid although we are in no way linking the Zaria based Shiites movement with the dastardly crime of the kidnap and killing of Colonel Inusa but affirmed that the striking resemblance in the two cases and the fact that both incidents happened within the same axis calls for sober reflection and very intensive and scientific-based criminal investigation to determine the characters behind the unfortunate kidnap and assassination of Colonel Inusa.

"The dangerous pattern of well coordinated kidnap and assassination of military officers trained at very high public costs is sad. The Nigerian State must step up the crime investigation mechanisms so this particular genre of emerging criminality does not become the order of the day. Nigerians are concerned that professionally trained combatants are kidnapped and assassinated and the culprits are allowed to melt back into the larger society and allowed to recommit further heinous crime of mass murder thereby complicating the situation of anarchy and impunity in the country. Let the Nigerian Government comply with constitutional provisions by fundamentally reorganizing the policing and investigative institutions and put the technological equipment and professionally train and retrain the law enforcement agents and put in place an effective supervisory regime in place so every crime is thoroughly investigated and evidence based findings put into practical use so suspected criminals are arrested, prosecuted and sanctioned severely by the Courts of competent jurisdiction. As it is now, Nigeria is saturated with numerous unresolved extrajudicial and criminal killings and the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are never arrested or punished and the society is now paying the ugly prize of long standing impunity. Let the necessary law enforcement authorities swing into action and accurately unearth those behind this GESTAPO type kidnap and brutal assassination of a very senior Army officer Colonel Samaila Inusa in a State whereby many strategic military institutions are located. This is a very sad commentary and this has understandably projected Nigeria before the global community as a lawless country whereby life has become so cheap so much so that freelance armed hoodlums wielding state of the art weapons are roaming round like roaring lions mauling and hacking down people to their gruesome deaths."

HURIWArecalled that some few years back a serving Minister of Justice and Federal Attorney General Chief Bola Ige (SAN) was assassinated in his Ibadan, Oyo State home but till date the killers are roaming freely and the Nigerian State is going on as if nothing much has happened.

The Rights group stated that it is this sort of impunity that creates room for such mass murderers like the armed Fulani herdsmen who are responsible for the killings of thousands of local farmers in Benue, Enugu, Delta, Taraba and Plateau States without even a single suspected killer been arrested and punished sternly.

"Those who killed this serving Colonel may have it at the back of their minds that in Nigeria of our time any crime can be committed and the Heavens won't fall. We must change this evil status quo for the sake of the generations yet unborn and for democracy and the rule of law to take firm roots", HURIWA affirmed.