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| Photo Credit: Nelson Ekujimi |
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| Photo Credit: Nelson Ekujimi |
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| Photo Credit: Nelson Ekujimi |
Thursday, 19 June 2014
Photonews: Ekiti State Election Materials
Photonews: Police Takes Over Streets Of Ekiti State Capital
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| Photo Credit: Nelson Ekujimi |
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| Photo Credit: Nelson Ekujimi |
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| Photo Credit: Nelson Ekujimi |
News Report: Nigerian Military Arrest Senior Boko Haram Member
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| Boko Haram Leadership |
Credit: Reuters
Nigerian security forces discovered a senior member of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram among a convoy of nearly 500 travellers arrested this week in the southern state of Abia, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.
News of the arrest comes as militants are killing civilians almost daily, particularly in the largely Muslim north. At least 14 people were killed on Tuesday when a bomb tore through a venue in the northeast where fans had gathered to watch a World Cup match.
The presence of a senior Boko Haram member in Nigeria's south would stoke fears Islamist militants are pushing into regions well beyond their northern stronghold - including in the mainly Christian south.
It would also raise concern the group,
which drew worldwide attention in April when it kidnapped more than 200 girls
from a school in northeast Nigeria, could eventually attempt attacks in the
oil-rich Niger delta.
Officials said on Monday that nearly 500 people believed to be northerners had been arrested overnight while travelling through the south in convoy of more than 30 vans.
"The army is screening the 486 persons being held in Abia state," defence spokesman General Chris Olukolade told Reuters on Wednesday. It had identified a "kingpin belonging to Boko Haram" among them, he said.
The army did not release the suspect's name or photograph.
Some of those arrested had said they were headed for southern city of Port Harcourt to look for work, the government has said.
Further stoking fears that militants are targeting the south, police in neighbouring Imo state defused three bombs found at a Christian church over the weekend, a local police spokesman said. Six people have been arrested, he said.
Boko Haram has shown its growing reach in recent months by moving beyond its heartland in Nigeria's weakly governed northeast. At least 118 people were killed in devastating back-to-back bomb blasts in the central city of Jos last month.
World Cup Blast
On Tuesday, at least 14 people, including young children were killed, when a bomb targeted a venue in the northeast town of Damaturu where fans had gathered to watch the World Cup on television.
Some people at the scene told Reuters an attacker dropped a device in front of the venue, while others said it was the work of a suicide bomber.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, but Damaturu and the surrounding Yobe state are at the heart of the five-year-old insurgency by Boko Haram.
The group was blamed for a an attack on another venue screening soccer matches in the northeastern state of Adamawa that killed at least 14 people and wounded 12.
A Reuters reporter at Damaturu's General Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital counted over a dozen people dead - including small children - and at least 20 wounded.
Police on Wednesday confirmed that the death toll had risen to 14.
The Nigerian government has advised
people to avoid gathering in public to watch the World Cup, concerned about potential
attacks. Many fans in soccer-mad Africa rely on informal venues - often
open-sided structures with televisions set up in shops and side streets - to
watch live coverage of the sport. Boko Haram - whose name roughly translates as
"Western education is sinful" - has declared war on all signs of what
it sees as corrupting Western influence. The group has killed thousands since
2009 in its push to create an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria.
News Release: Call For Human Rights Friendly Environment During Ekiti State Election
A civil society group, HURIDAC is calling for “a human rights friendly environment before, during and after the Ekiti election.”
HURIDAC is seriously concerned about
the threat to peace and security in the State and the potential denial of the
internationally recognized human rights of the people of Ekiti State.
The Gubernatorial election in Ekiti
State is slated for June 21st. However, the build up to the election has been
marked by violence and threat to human rights. Death has already been recorded,
security has been beefed up, and the general environment in the state is
already tense and militarized.
While many civil society organizations
are coming to Ekiti to monitor the election, one organisation, the Human Rights
Advancement, Development and Advocacy Centre (HURIDAC) is employing a new
approach of monitoring the election from a human rights perspective.
“HURIDAC’s role in monitoring the
election is advancing and advocating for a human rights friendly environment
for the election. This will enable the citizens of the state to exercise their
rights to participation in their political affairs. It is important that people
are not disenfranchised due to the tense and violence-prone environment, as
this will invariably violate their right to vote. The right to vote is an
important element of citizens’ rights to participate in their own government,”
said Ayodele Ameen, HURIDAC’s Executive Director.
The organisation is therefore calling
on all stakeholders to contribute to ensuring a human rights friendly
environment for the election. An environment that will not only guarantee a
‘free’ election, but also guarantee the ‘fairness’ of the election, which is an
essential precondition for good governance and respect for the rule of law.
This election must guarantee the exercise of freedom of opinion, association,
expression, non-discrimination, and the use of the secret ballot box system.
“The election needs to be ‘fair’, and in doing that, the environment must be
conducive for the encouragement of the ‘one person, one vote’ system, for
non-discrimination and positive measures, and for a genuine election,” Ayodele
Ameen further stated.
A few days to the election, cases have
been reported of intent for electoral fraud. The security agencies claimed that
some people have already been arrested. According to HURIDAC’s Executive
Director; “Though the Electoral Act made provisions for the prosecution of
electoral offences, election tribunals should move beyond just adjudication on
electoral results, and should consider harsh punishment for evidence of
electoral fraud. The government should stop impunity around electoral fraud.”
The success of this gubernatorial
election will be determined by how professionally the security forces dispense
their duties. “The security forces have a bigger role to play. The police and
other security agencies should be independent and give assurance to all parties
that the police will protect them all. If voters observe that the utterances or
body language of the police are suggesting bias or doing the bidding of one
party or candidate, this will undermine their trust and confidence in these
institutions, create political apathy, and ultimately infringe on peoples’
right to participate.”
International standards suggest that
the police should balance between their role to maintain law and order during
elections and the importance of non-interference with human rights and the
existence of an environment free of intimidation. According to the United
Nations Code of Conduct for law enforcement officers (art. 2); “law enforcement
officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the
human rights of all persons”. The UN has stated that; “police agencies that do
not respect fundamental human rights has the potential to create an
intimidating atmosphere that will inhibit the electorate and subvert the
genuineness of the election outcome”. The UN further stated that any; “police
presence at places of polling should be discrete, professional and disciplined.
Police and security personnel should be posted in the minimum number necessary
to ensure security in a given location. They should never be positioned in such
a way that will impede legitimate access, intimidate voters or discourage them
from participating.”
HURIDAC further stated that human
rights should not be compromised during this election, that the organization will
be gathering information on cases of human rights violations and abuses, and
that these will be forwarded to appropriate quarters.
The
citizens should ensure that their right to vote is exercised and defended
during this election, said the Executive Director.
Ayodele Ameen
Executive Director,
HURIDAC
Executive Director,
HURIDAC
News Release; Arrest Of 486 Nigerians Labeled “Boko Haram Terror Suspects”
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| Boko Haram Leadership |
The attention of the leadership of International
Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law-Intersociety has
been drawn to the reported arrest in the blue hours (2.am) of Sunday, 15th
of June 2014 of 486 Nigerians at Abia and Imo portions of the Port Harcourt-Enugu
Dual Carriage Way, Southeast Nigeria. According to media, military and
government reports, the 486 Nigerians in the age categories of between 16 and
24 years were being conveyed in 35 buses with undisclosed identities when the
military road guards intercepted them and later impounded 33 out of the 35
buses carrying about 486 Nigerians of northern origins. The remaining two buses
reportedly escaped. The sources labeled them “Boko Haram suspects” and
transferred them to the nearby 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army where they
were detained and later paraded before the media and further tagged “ Boko
Haram suspects”. In another Southeast Nigerian State of Imo, two unexploded
bombs were said to have been uncovered at the Living Ministry-Winners Chapel.
The bombs were said to have been planted by unknown people.
For us at Intersociety, the
labeling of the arrestees as “Boko Haram suspects” without establishing
preliminary facts about them is too hasty. This is likened to 76 indigent
Igbo-Nigerians rounded up and deported in July 2013 to Onitsha Upper Iweka by
the Government of Lagos State, which labeled them “mentally
challenged/destitute”. The 76 Igbo-Nigerians under reference were crammed in
buses provided and escorted by the Government of Lagos State and dumped in
Onitsha at about 3.am (hours of the blue law). Investigations later revealed
that they were traders, hawkers and others begging for alms in the streets of
Lagos or “lands created from lagoons” originally by Benin warriors as war camps
(Eko) and later by Portuguese settlers for urban dwellers.
Every civil or criminal
investigation is usually composed of preliminary and tertiary elements.
Conclusions drawn outside the two are usually speculative, unverifiable and
unscientific and any labeling and actual punishment originating therein amounts
to jungle justice or trial by ordeal. The preliminary findings that ought to
accompany the official public pronouncements on the arrestees under reference
should have included the names of the arrestees, their particular northern
States and LGAs of origin or residency, their religions and marital statuses.
Others are their venues of convergence and dispersal, the identities of buses
conveying them as well as those of the drivers of the buses and those who hired
or arranged for the buses. It is only when the arrestees have failed to furnish
those carrying out these preliminary findings on them that it can validly and
safely be concluded that the arrestees have malicious intents. Unfortunately,
those who paraded the arrestees and tagged them “Boko Haram suspects” did not
publicly give out these basic facts about them. That they were being conveyed
in the hours of the blue law is not a valid excuse to tag them “Boko Haram
suspects” especially if they are IDPs escaping insurgency zones.
Until recently, not many Nigerians
are aware that most of the killing sprees and abductions embarked upon by the
Boko Haram murderous squads in northern Nigeria are targeted and directed at
communities with large Christian populations. It took the courage of a
Christian Pentecostal Church leadership to publicly reveal that out of 180 of
the 276 Chibok girls abducted by the violent Islamists on 14th
April, 2014, 165 are Christians and only 15 are Muslims. The governing
authorities in the insurgency areas including the authorities of the Nigerian
security forces have for long hidden and refused to disclose the ethnic and
religious identities of those abducted or felled by the violent Islamists’
bullets or bombs.
In view of the fact that there have
been a steady mass movement from northern parts to southern parts owing to
ceaseless killings, maiming and property destructions under reference, caution
must be applied to avoid infringing on the fundamental rights of internally
displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing from insurgency zones so as to safeguard their
right to life and other constitutionally guaranteed liberties. We are aware
that Christian northerners and other non northern Christians are fleeing their
residences for safety. A number of them have re-settled in many Southeast
cities including Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Nsukka and Owerri.
We are also in the know that a number of innocent young Muslims from the
insurgency areas have relocated to southern cities and rural areas. It is to
our knowledge as well that selected leaders of Christian communities and
socio-political community leaders have been making efforts to facilitate
relocation and possible evacuation of residents of minority Christian
communities particularly young male population to areas considered safer so as
to save them from Boko Haram’s well coordinated ethno-religious cleansing and
genocide targeted and directed at northern Christian communities and residents.
In the last Gwoza Christian community massacre of June 2nd, 2014,
for instance, all the male Christian citizens caught by the violent Islamist
sect were nearly mass murdered.
These explain why we hold a strong
view that it is totally hasty, speculative and fallacious for the governing and
security authorities to label the 486 citizens under reference as “Boko Haram
suspects”. Besides, in modern military and warfare science, it is a total
blunder for Boko Haram bombers and fighters to be conveyed in such manner,
timing notwithstanding. In asymmetric war technology, which the violent
Islamist sect has adopted against Nigerians and the State of Nigeria, it is
toyish to apply such method. But for the fact that rooms are still given for
war blunders, the impoundment of the 33 buses and arrest of the 486 citizens is
not out of place. What is out of place is the hasty manner in which they were
so maliciously labeled, which can earn them official mass murder (torture,
enforced disappearance and extra judicial killing) or stigmatization in the
hands of the host civil populace.
Our firm position is that they
should be diligently investigated and if they are found to be those fleeing
insurgency areas or refugees or IDPs, they should be apologized to and publicly
quartered pending when they harmlessly integrate with the host civil populace.
Profile of each of them should be built and kept by the government and relevant
authorities of the Nigerian security forces for security reasons. We call upon
leaders of Christian churches or communities, who may have been responsible for
relocation of endangered Nigerian citizens from insurgency areas to safe areas
to come out and speak concerning the subject matter under reference. If such an
arrangement is made by moderate Muslim communities, we also call upon them to
speak publicly as well. If the arrestees make it difficult to be investigated
by refusing to volunteer useful information about themselves and circumstances
of their blue law hour conveyance, then there can be reasonable grounds to
imply that they are security risk, and as such, they should be sent back and be
monitored round the clock.
They can only be tagged “Boko Haram
suspects” if there are pieces of credible evidence linking them with the
activities of the violent Islamist sect, upon which they can be charged to
court of competent jurisdiction within times allowed by law. A recent statement
by the Nigerian military sources to the effect that one of the arrestees “has
been found to be one of those wanted for terrorism or linked with Boko Haram
terror” may still be hasty and questionable and require further independent
confirmation. Even if the statement is confirmed to be true, it is still an
isolated case, which cannot be a valid premise to mass-label all the arrestees
as “Boko Haram suspects”.
We also wish to caution politicians
particularly the top elected public office holders representing the Southeast
zone at State and federal levels not to politicize the insecurity in the
Southeast particularly by compounding the fears and apprehensions created by
Boko Haram terror and threats. We understand that the 2015 general polls are
around the corner and politicians of Nigeria extraction have world record of
expertise in the politics of the graveyard. They are also
artistic in human misery merchandise. Politicization of
insecurity by these malicious public office holders is usually accompanied by
steady bloated increases in security votes and creation of artificial
insecurity all for selfish political goals or advantages. The politically oiled
abductions and armed robberies in Abia and Anambra States in the immediate past
are a clear case in point.
However, we wish to warn those
radical Islamists and leftist northern politicians oiling the Boko Haram terror
to steer clear of the Southeast zone and other parts of the south. If the rumor
making the rounds that Boko Haram reins of terror will soon visit the Southeast
geopolitical zone and other southern parts, holds water, then the Rwandan type
of genocide is imminent in Nigeria. The country will be sunk and consumed in such
a manner that at the end, there will be nothing left to be Islamized, not to
talk of conversion of the Aso Rock into
Boko Haram Sultanate. If a country of approximately
seven million people could lose one million to genocide in hundred days, it
will be thunderous and deafening to mention how many million lives that will be
lost if Nigeria with approximated population of 170 million is plunged
into a genocidal war of Rwandan category. Such genocidal war defies formal and
modern warfare approaches as well as humanitarian control and truce until there
are few people left to be killed.
The governing authorities in Nigeria
must quarantine and trounce Boko Haram menace and threats otherwise they,
likewise Boko Haram commanders and sponsors will become casualties and refugees
overnight if Nigerians are provoked under genocidal circumstances.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties
& the Rule of Law-Intersociety
41,
Miss Elems Street, Fegge-Onitsha 430003
Anambra
State, Southeast Nigeria
+2348100755939
(text 24/7, call 9.30am-4.pm, Mon.-Friday office hours)
www.intersociety-ng.org
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