NewsHypocrisy Of Buhari's Presidency Stinks - HURIWA

Hypocrisy Of Buhari’s Presidency Stinks – HURIWA

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BEVERLY HILLS, September 21, (THEWILL) – The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Thursday slammed the Presidency for identifying the Indigenous peoples of Biafra, IPOB, as a terrorist organisation while describing killer herdsmen as mere criminals.

“Government’s naked partiality on matters of national security because of Religious or geopolitical considerations will harm the unity of the Country for a long time to come,” it said.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu had explained that the government did not declare herdsmen, who kill people, as terrorists because they are “only criminal gangs”.

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Speaking with Channels TV on Thursday, he said, “There is a difference between a criminal activity and a terrorist activity. Yes, some Fulani herdsmen are a criminal gang and they are being dealt with according to the law.

“But IPOB like Boko Haram has a territory they have carved out to themselves …as a sovereign state of its own. They have shown the willingness to invade other neighbouring states…”

Reacting in a statement by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA warned that government’s double standards on matters of national security is a threat to national security and unity, adding that “this show of shame by officials of the current government is stoking up ethnic tensions and creating mutual discord”.

It said the current administration’s approach of “sending armed soldiers to confront unarmed members of IPOB and followed it up with a nocturnal injunction from the Federal High Court proscribing the pro-self determination group whilst doing nothing about incessant armed Fulani attacks is a direct violation of the Constitutional oath of office sworn to by the President to carry out his official functions without pandering to Ethnic and Religious interests”.

HURIWA lambasted the presidential spokesman for “raising undue and false alarm over the pro-Biafra group whilst forgetting that unlike IPOB which the Federal government hurriedly branded terrorist organisation which has no control of even a square meter of any Nigerian land, the armed Fulani terrorists have taken over lands belonging to different farming communities in Benue and Kaduna States and wondered why this Federal government under Buhari is elevating propaganda to statecraft”.

The rights group charged government officials “to be law abiding by not commenting on matters that are subjudicial given that the Court’s proscription of IPOB is open to appeal in line with the extant counter terror Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Officials of government must stop abusing their privileged positions by running wide their mouths spewing unsubstantiated and incoherent allegations against a party in a matter between IPOB and the same government,” the statement concluded.

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