Huriwa Drags Rep – Elect Ndudi Elumelu To Igp; Nhrc Over Alleged Threat To Life Of A Citizen:

A prominent CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCACY GROUP – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned what it calls the unprecedented upsurge in lawlessness, political impunity and the will to overpower by the tiny political class in Nigeria even as it has called on Nigerians to rise up and defend their human rights or be prepared to be enslaved forever.

The group specifically affirmed that the manifestations of crass impunity by members of the political class are in two forms namely in micro and micro-levels just as the group has dragged a House of Representatives elect from Delta State Chief Ndudi Elumelu to the office of the inspector General of police Mohammed Adamu and the office of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to demand the investigation of a complaint brought to its attention by a distressed citizen Mr. Elue Nnabuife Anthony of Asaba in Oshmili south local government area of Delta, who said the politician allegedly took away his lawfully wedded wife and threatened to kill him should he continue to demand justice for the alleged breach of his marital rights allegedly violated with impunity by the politician.

HURIWA stated that Mr. Elue Nnabuife Anthony made the reports of alleged nefarious acts of the top Delta state politicians as follows:

“We write to intimate you about the alleged nefarious activities of the named culprit who having connived with our client’s legally married wife to divorce our client is now head bend on sending him to an early grave for no just cause.”

“It is Mr. Nnabuife Anthony’s story in the year 2003 that he got married to Mrs. Winifred Nwakuso Onwuka and the marriage is blessed with two girls namely; Miss. Princess Ifechukwu Elue age 13 years and Miss. Fumnanya Ebele Elue age 10 years and he was living happily with his family till sometime between the year 2010 and 2011 when he returned from London with his family and began to notice some unusual closeness between his lawfully married wife and the above mentioned culprit and when he tried to talk to the above named culprit who is his brother from the same clan (Ezechima Clan) over this alleged unwarranted closeness with his wife which is an abomination in their community, the culprit allegedly started threatening his life, boasting that he will influence his wife to divorce him and will use a Federal job appointment under the health ministry in Abuja to induce her to do that but citizen Anthony never took his alleged threat and boast seriously till sometime in the year 2013 when he returned from his London business journey that he embarked in 2012 and discovered to his shock and chagrin that his lovely wife who was living happily with him before he left the country for London in 2012 in pursuit of a greener pasture for his family well-being had gone to court to divorce him and allegedly eloped with his two daughters from Asaba where he left them to the house of the above named culprit who had earlier alleged boasted of it “

“Elue Nnabuife Anthony further alleged that after discovering the state of things upon his return from London and he made effort to access his lovely children in accordance with divorce order absolute of the court which unequivocally have him the right to have access to his children whenever he wishes, the above named culprit in connivance with his ex-wife, Mrs. Winifred Nwakuso Onwuka , refused him access to his children which necessitated him filling a contempt proceeding to enforce the right of access to his children before the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja High Court wherein Justice O.O. Goodluck made an order which made it possible for his two daughters to spend a weekend with him sometime in the year 2017 and he stated equally that while his daughters namely Miss. Princess Ifechukwu Elue and Miss. Fumnanya Ebele Elue were with him for that two days, they confined in him an allegation that Hon. Chief Ndudi Elumelu usually put blue-films and be dancing naked in their presence and on many occasions he will be chasing them around inside the room while he is allegedly naked under the influence of suspected substance and alcohol and touching their private parts in an attempt to defile them and that they have reported this indecent assault on them severally to their mother who will always treat the matter with glove hands that he is now troubled over the state of his daughters life’s whose whereabouts since then till date is unknown to him”.

“It is premised on these foregoing facts and coupled with the fact that citizen Anthony is a law abiding citizen who would not like to resort to self-help that we are making this clarion call to IGP/NHRC to swiftly and decisively initiate a high powered investigation into this matter that will necessitate the following:

a) Arresting if need be the culprit and his cohort before his children will be defiled at this their tender ages;

b) Initiating criminal prosecution of these culprits to serve as a deterrent to prospective/intending culprits.

That is at the micro level. Still at the micro-level,”HURIWA has also condemned the continuous unleashing of bloody violence in unprecedented scale on farmers and villagers in south west; Kaduna, Delta, Enugu, Taraba and Benue state by armed Fulani herdsmen just as we condemned the tendency of the presidency to continue to defend the association like Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association (MACBAN) which is the body that consistently defended the violent attacks waged on farming communities by armed Fulani herdsmen. The recent claim by the presidential spokesman Garba Shehu that Miyetti Allah is similar to other regional peace loving platforms such as OHANAEZE; Arewa and Afenifere is the height of political impunity and executive rascality”.

The Rights group has also condemned the inaction of governors of Enugu who has persistently failed to defend his people from bloody attack by armed Fulani herdsmen on many occasions. HURIWA disclosed that it will send a letter to the Enugu state governor Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to demand that he takes action to prosecute the armed Fulani gangsters or he would be dragged to the international criminal court in The Hague, Netherlands (ICC) for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.

HURIWA which backed the claims by ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo that there could be a hidden agenda by armed Fulani herdsmen backed by top government offices, has asked leaders of all ethno-religious groups to convoke a national security dialogue to compel both the Nigerian government and world leaders at the United Nations to protect the diverse ethno-religious people who are at the receiving end of a well-coordinated genocide by armed Fulani herdsmen.

“HURIWA does not support arm struggle as a way of fighting back to push back the attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen. We demand that Nigerians publicly demand immediate actions to arrest, prosecute armed Fulani herdsmen and to categorize Miyetti Allah as a terrorist group”

“The Nigerian police that has constantly paraded some of these well-armed hoodlums must be compelled alongside the offices of Federal Attorney General and State Attorneys General to prosecute all the armed hoodlums arrested over the past months for acts of kidnapping, banditry and crimes against humanity”.

HURIWA which applauded the arrests of these armed violent criminals, kidnappers and bandits by the police, has however stated that the most lawful thing to do is to prosecute them and impose the harshest capital punishment to serve as deterrent as a way of stopping the widening spectre of violent kidnappings.

HURIWA is also concerned about the growing lawlessness by some outgoing governors who are behaving like emperors determined to financially cripple in coming elected administrations in those states. Oyo and Imo states are the flashpoints that we are calling on law enforcement authorities such as EFCC and DSS to take special interest.

We commend the EFCC for stopping the outgoing governor of Imo state Rochas Okorocha from allegedly looting the #8 billion Paris Club refund paid to Imo state. We support the decision of EFCC to probe, arrest, detain and prosecute Rochas Okorocha over alleged economic devastation of Imo state as alleged by EFCC. We are going to name and shame any Federal High Court Judge who goes ahead to frustrate EFCC from prosecuting outgoing Imo state governor.

We are writing to the incoming governor of Imo State to retrieve all the allegedly looted assets of Imo State by the outgoing administration just as we ask Mr. President not to stand in the way of the Imo State people and government to retrieve every asset allegedly stolen.

We condemn in totality the frivolous donation of Imo State health facilities to certain individuals and groups masquerading as churches and security forces as announced by Rochas Okorocha. We ask that Imo State newly built hospital be handed over to the incoming government one-half of the people. This latest act of political impunity in Imo State must never be allowed to stand.

HURIWA recalled that outgoing governor on Monday, handed over state-owned general hospitals to some security agencies, the Anglican and The Lord’s Chosen churches to be operated under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative of the state government.

The event took place at the Imo Government House, Owerri, with the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding with the beneficiaries.

Speaking at the event, Gov. Rochas Okorocha said the initiative was part of the efforts at expanding the scope of government.

Okorocha said that history had shown that the private sector was better equipped to run establishments than the government.

He urged the beneficiaries to respect the terms of the MOU and hand the facilities back to the government at the expiration of the lease period.

The governor said that the hospitals had not been sold to them. He directed that the beneficiaries of the facilities should pay N100,000 every month to the state government, while government would be entitled to 10 per cent stake.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that three hospitals were leased to the Anglican Church for a period of five years, with an 18-month moratorium, while the Claretian and Lord’s Chosen Universities secured 99-year leases, also with an 18-month moratorium each.

NAN reports that benefiting security agencies included the Nigerian Army (Owerri West General Hospital), Nigerian Navy (Ngor Okpala Hospital), Nigerian Airforce (Owerri North General Hospital) and Police (Ideator South General Hospital). (NAN)

Lastly we absolutely condemn the political impunity by the authority of the National Assembly which went against section 22 of the constitution to impose some extra legal requirements for accreditation of journalists to cover the National Assembly. These outrageously illegal requirements must be voided. Section 22 of the constitution says “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.“

The freedom of information act of 2015 is against such illegality. "The National Assembly by these so-called new accreditation requirements has converted the National Assembly to a National hall of shame and a political secret court which offends all-knowing norms of civility and constitutional democracy must be withdrawn immediately.

Thank you gentlemen of the media, the fourth estate of the Realm.

Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko;
National Coordinator
Delivered on Tuesday 21st May 2019.