PLATEAU MASSACRE: Attack by terrorists intolerable crime and manifestation of Incompetence- HURIWA … Asks President Tinubi to sack Defence Chiefs

Oru Leonard 

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has said the Plateau state massacre by terrorists is intolerable and a manifestation of incompetence. The group has also called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sack Defence Chiefs for lack of performance.

A statement made available to News Dot Africa by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, read in full:

“It is now as clear and as constant as the northern stars that the current crop of service chiefs, Defence and police ministers and the inspector General of police are absolutely and grossly incompetent and indeed lack the capacity, the will power, the patriotic zeal and the professional candour to combat and defeat the expanding frontiers of terror attacks just as the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which made the observation stated that the massacre of over 150 Plateau State Christian indigenes by suspected armed Fulani terrorists is an intolerable crime. HURIWA is demanding the immediate overhauling of the security institutions because the present heads of those institutions of national security are not committed to safeguard lives abd property of the citizens of the Country.

HURIWA recalled that France news agency has reported that armed groups have killed at least 160 people in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local government officials said on Monday. The group then wonder how on earth the President and the service chiefs are busy feasting in their different homes under the guise of celebrating the Christmas holiday whereas citizens are exposed to the dangerous attacks by armed terrorists wielding the most deadly military grade weapons even when this government lacks the needed political will to conquer terrorists even as the government has failed to name and shame identified sponsors of terrorists.

HURIWA recalled that the toll marked a sharp rise from the initial figure reported by the army Sunday evening of just 16 dead in a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions. “What is the primary duty of government constitutionally? The primary legal obligations of government in accordance with the Grund Norm of Nigeria is the preservation of the sanctity of lives of Nigerians, prevent killings of citizens and the destructions of their property and assets by armed non state actors. Why then is the president Tinubu unwilling to dismiss his non-performing security service chiefs and the DG of DSS who has overstayed his retirement time?

“it is the most shameful show of incompetence on the part of the Commander-in-Chief and his bunch of appointees holding command and ministerial positions linked to the protection of national security, to stand by even as many as 113 persons have been confirmed killed says HURIWA even as the Saturday hostilities persisted to early hours of Monday as disclosed by Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, told AFP.

Military gangs, locally called “bandits”, launched “well-coordinated” attacks in “not fewer than 20 different communities” and torched houses, Kassah said.

Regrettably, HURIWA blame the incompetent service chiefs and the IGP for making it seamless for daredevil terrorists to spread their killing sprees across many states in Nigeria, the cases in Taraba and Benue states are becoming increasingly worrisome to the extent that terrorists from Cameroon enter Nigeria and kill in the two states unchallenged. HURIWA described the continuous killings by the so-called unknown gunmen in the South East, and the persistent pogroms in Benue, Taraba and Plateau carefully choreographed by Fulani irredentists and terrorists, as unforgivable crimes against humanity just as the Rights group said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must arrest the killers and take them to face stiff and swift justice or the President should get ready to be dragged to the International criminal court in the Hague Netherlands for permitting heinous crimes against humanity under his government. ”

HURIWA which stated that killings are also the manifestations of the lack of any kind of coordinated approach by the armed forces of Nigeria, the police and the Department of State Services to viciously confront the terrorists unleashing mass killings all across Nigeria, the group has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sack all the service chiefs and the IGP to make way for fresh minds and fresh hands with the requisite competences and patriotism to finish off these terrorists.

HURIWA said it is so glaring that LAW AND ORDER has collapsed in substantial parts of Nigeria and given way to the regime of terrorists just as the Rights group condemned the fact that no fewer than three worshippers have reportedly been killed by unknown gunmen who invaded Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Nkweagu, in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

HURIWA recalled that reports have it that the gunmen attacked the church at about 11:30 pm on Sunday even as they had earlier called one of the victims, a popular POS operator at Nkwuagu market, on the phone to come out from the church. As soon as he stepped out, they shot and killed him.

It was gathered that the killings of the three victims threw the whole community into mourning and paralyzed economic activities, especially on Christmas Day, at the popular Nkwuagu market located along the Abakaliki/Afikpo express road.
Recall that one person, a student, was recently killed at Nkwuagu .

HURIWA is calling on the President who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nigeria to take responsibility for these massive scale of failures by the armed forces and then take concrete steps to rejig the architectural formation of Nigeria’s security services by picking new sets of competent heads to coordinate the attacks against terrorists. “President Tinubu shouldn’t wait for the country to collapse totally before he removes his grossly incompetent National security Adviser and the service chiefs including the ruthlessly unprofessional IGP. The President has to take action now to stop Nigeria from the progressive drift to the abyss and total lawlessness, anarchy and doom”.