Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Wednesday, condemned the gruesome murder of an indigene of Adamawa State, Harira Jibril, and her four kids by gunmen in Anambra State. HURIWA also condemned the rash of killings by ISAP of 50 young boys in Ran Borno state and 12 persons in Katsina by Fulani terrorists. The Rights group said the patience of Nigerians is running out with the current patently incompetent Federal government.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said security agents must go after the perpetrators of the heinous crimes in Borno, Katsina and Anambra States.
The group, however, warned that the killing of the married Adamawa woman who had reportedly lived all her life in Anambra State should not be ethnicised or politicised by fifth columnists who always want to trigger violent inter-tribal and inter-religious conflicts. HURIWA urged the Governors of Northern States to ensure that all citizens from all parts of Nigeria living amongst them are not harmed in any way.
HURIWA said criminals are callous bastards who don’t differentiate their targets as they have also killed many Anambra indigenes and South-Easterners including the female Igbo soldier, the beheading of the Anambra legislators and hundreds of other Igbos and so HURIWA condemned conflicts entrepreneurs such as the Northern Youths Coalition who are baying for blood at the time that all hands must be on the deck to hunt and haunt the terrorists who are public enemies.
Gunmen recently beheaded Okechukwu Okoye, the lawmaker representing Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly. Two about-to-wed soldiers, Master Warrant Officer Audu Linus (retired) and Private Gloria Matthew, from Imo State, were also beheaded on April 30, 2022, days to their traditional wedding.
Gunmen in September 2021, gruesomely killed Dr. Chike Akunyili, the widower of the late Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Dora Akunyili, in Anambra State.
There are scores of killings of Igbos in the South-East by the same rampaging gunmen.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The killing of Harira Jibril and her kids are condemnable and unjustifiable. We, at HURIWA, condemn it in the strongest term and urge security agents to fish out the perpetrators regardless of who they are or their motives.
“However, HURIWA will want to alert the public not to allow fifth columnists and mischievous characters not to twist the incident and give it an ethnic coloration which is not true as the vicious gunmen have killed numerous Igbo sons and daughters even recently.
“The terrorism in the north and the fresh killings of over 65 farmers in Katsina and Borno states are not different from the killings in the South-West, the South-South, Anambra and the other four states in the South-East plagued by insecurity.
“The truth is that terror has been unleashed on Nigeria and Nigerians and government at the top most levels in Abuja is silent, in bed with the terrorists or lack the wherewithal to confront these marauders.
“Nigeria is facing a pure terrorism war and not an ethno-religious conflict.
“HURIWA stresses that the Anambra killing of the Adamawa lady was not connected to the murder of Deborah Yakubu in Sokoto State. There is no ethnic agenda in the Anambra violence because if those saying so are not agents of destabilisation, what will they say is the agenda of ISWAP killing Borno people and Fulani terrorists killing Hausas in Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and Niger State? People must stop reading ethnoreligious meaning into the pure terrorism happening against Igboland by yet to be determined set of persons with the agenda of setting one part of the country against the other.
“Political, religious and tribal leaders should help the matter and orient their people that criminality has no tribe. They should also call their people to order against issuing threats or retaliating in any form.
“Nigeria cannot afford an ethno-religious war amid an insurgency. Security agents must crush the terrorists killing innocent Nigerians like chickens.”
Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)
May 25, 2022