Huriwa To President Buhari-: Stop Killing Us Over Lockdown

The nation's most prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has appealed to World leaders like President Donald Trump of the United States of America; British Prime minister Boris Johnson; German chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau to immediately intervene to stop the genocide of Nigerian impoverished citizens by security forces enforcing the draconian lockdown measures ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari over the outbreak of COVID-19.

HURIWA said that it is worried that extra-legal killings by armed security forces and most especially the highly unruly members of the Nigerian Police Force have gone on for many years just as the coming of the current administration headed by a former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari has heightened the regularity of the dastardly criminal acts of state sponsored murders by the security forces in addition to the level of impunity and lawlessness that have trailed this unwarranted high tolls of EXTRAJUDICIAL killings by the armed security forces controlled by the office of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigeria Armed forces.

HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf said that it has in the past few days issued clarion calls on President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to caution the armed security forces to check the incidence of EXTRALEGAL KILLINGS of citizens.

HURIWA however expressed regrets that it would seem that this and many other appeals from right thinking Patriots and groups have gone without been heeded by the Federal government which is signposted by the renewed brutal attacks of citizens by armed security forces.

"We condemn all these atrocious state sponsored killings by the police, the Nigerian Civil Defence Corp and the Nigerian Army. The killings of Nigerians hungry and desperate to buy foods for their starving members of their families locked up in the guise of a lockdown by the Federal government as a measure to contain the spread of the CORONAVIRUS disease in the Country without commensurately providing the much needed food reliefs is a crime against humanity which would never be swept under the carpets," affirms HURIWA.

According to the frontline human rights defenders (HURIWA): "The police operatives responsible for THESE attacks on Nigerians in Anambra; Abia and the soldiers and Civil Defence Corp that similarly deployed lethal weapons to kill unarmed citizens in Aba, Warri and Sapele in Delta State must be arrested, prosecuted and punished severely for these killings or they would be sent to the International Criminal court in The Hague Netherlands for crimes against humanity."

HURIWA continued: "The policemen who killed five traders in Kaduna whilst seeking to enforce the draconian covid-19 curfew ordered by Governor Nassir Elruffai have still not be caught, Prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the Principle of Rule of law. This show of official impunity and the reckless disregard for the respect of the human rights of Nigerians is the very same reason we are making the present appeal to the World leaders to speak out and put President Muhammadu Buhari under pressure to name, shame and dismiss and punish the killer armed security operatives responsible for the spate of coordinated genocides of EXTRALEGAL KILLINGS of citizens under the guise of enforcement of the Stay at home order made by the governors and President Muhammadu Buhari".

HURIWA said the Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari owes the binding legal obligations to stop the killibgs and police the killer armed security forces because under international law in 1966 the UN adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

HURIWA said these twin strategic global legal instruments elaborate on many of the rights contained in the Universal Declaration. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights reiterates the right to life, liberty and security of person and prohibits, in particular, the arbitrary deprivation of life - a characteristic of the killings described in this report which is same as we are presenting in this media statememt under consideration.

HURIWA said: " May we remind President Muhammadu Buhari that Over the next decades, the UN adopted further international instruments on particular types of human rights violations or on human rights in relation to particular professions or in particular circumstances. Two of these, adopted recently, are of special importance: The Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions (cited below as the "Principles on Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions"). These were drafted by the UN Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, adopted by the Economic and Security Council in 1989 and endorsed by the General Assembly the same year. (The term "extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions" embraces what Amnesty International refers to as extrajudicial executions.) "

"The Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance ("Declaration on Disappearances"), adopted without a vote by the General Assembly in 1992 after consideration by the UN Commission on Human Rights and its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Together with the human rights treaties adopted regionally and the international humanitarian law which regulates the conduct of armed conflict (see below), these international instruments firmly establish the prohibition of "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions and specify detailed measures for their prevention"

"The prohibition of "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions under international standards "No state shall practise, permit or tolerate enforced disappearances."-UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance ("Declaration on Disappearances"), Article 2 "Governments shall prohibit by law all extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions ... "-UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, Article 1 "Disappearances" and extrajudicial executions are clear violations of fundamental rights proclaimed in the Violations of international human rights earliest human rights instruments adopted by the UN."

HURIWA wishes to recall vividly THAT most recently, the prohibition has been spelled out in the two instruments. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." These rights are violated when "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions are perpetrated. Extrajudicial executions clearly violate the right to life. Other rights also are often violated in cases of extrajudicial executions: often, for example, the victims are made to "disappear" or tortured before being killed. Whether or not they are parties to the International Covenant, all states must be regarded as obliged to refrain from "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions as violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of person. The United Nations adopted its first resolutions expressing general concern about "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions in 1978 and 1980 respectively".

HURIWA recalled that the Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday claimed security operatives killed 18 civilians during enforcement of a total lockdown in major cities in the country over the novel coronavirus.

HURIWA however condemned the National Human Rights commission for failing to utilize the newly legislated operational independence by not only barking without biting but for not prosecuting these killer security agents who have gone out of control due to official impunity. "The same executive secretary of the National Human Rights commission will go the United Nations Human Rights Council and put up shameful defence of the human rights records of NIGERIA rather than presenting an unbiased and uncensored human rights position in Nigeria. This same commission recently gave the president an award even with the dirty human rights records since 2015".