Civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has dismissed as pretentious and empty sophistry the statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in which he described the lingering banditry in the North West as disturbing.
The president spoke while hosting 12 governors and some federal lawmakers.
He had said: “The lingering development in the North West is the most amazing one because of the fact that they are the same people, the same religion but keep on killing and stealing each other’s cattle and burning their own villages.
“This has made it necessary for the Federal Government to change the entire security approach by redeploying soldiers and other security forces to restore peace in the affected regions.”
But HURIWA said the president’s “lackadaisical” attitude towards handling the issues of terrorism in the North West “is unjustifiable and tragic.”
The rights group said what is troubling is not the terrorists’ attacks characterized by mass kidnappings of school children and killing of security operatives, including the terrorist criminal conduct of shooting down a military Jet in Zamfara State by armed Fulani terrorists, but the “outrageous and provocative” way Buhari pampers the terrorists by first calling them mere bandits instead of declaring them as terrorists that they are.
“President Buhari should know that what troubles rational human beings all over the world is that his government uses sledge hammer to crush the largely unarmed Eastern Security Network and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the South East and the Yoruba Nation freedom crusaders who are unarmed in the South West, but resorts to empty rhetorics and sophistry on matters concerning the terrorists in the North West thereby making the rest of Nigerians to assume that the largely Fulani militia doing the terrorist acts in the North West are being pampered for ethno-religious considerations,” it said.
HURIWA “humbly” pleaded with President Buhai to take a look at his oath of office and “take decisive steps, irrespective of the ethno-religious links he may have with the terrorists in the North West, and enforce the counter-terror law to crush them instead of the constant sermonization.”
The statement reads: “For the umpteenth time, we in the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria pray President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the violations of the oath of office he took which is binding on him legally when he swore as follows: ‘I, ………….. do solemnly swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
“‘that as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;…….
“‘that I will abide by the Code of Conduct contained in the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will; that I will not directly or indirectly communication or reveal to any person any matter which shall be brought under my consideration or shall become known to me as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…”