Judiciary
WITH the report in reputable media that unambiguously indicated that the just ended nationwide protests against economic hardship resulted in violent clashes in Northern Nigeria, killing 22 protesters, even as Southern regions remained largely peaceful, President Bola Tinubu has been urged to set up independent commission of investigators to be headed by a respected serving justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and 5 others to be drawn from a broad spectrum of credible Nigerian private and public institutions to investigate the deaths and causes. Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, made the charge.
HURIWA has asked that the security operatives who shot at protesters must be identified, prosecuted for mass murders and punished in line with the rule of law even as the Rights group warned that sweeping the killings under the carpets will not augur well just as it emphasized that the impunity may orchestrate another #ENDSARS demonstration if these recent killings were not adequately investigated and the killers punished.
Besides, pro-democracy advocates: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which made the call in a media statement by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, further called on governors of the states that were the flashpoints of the suspected killings of protesters by security agents such as Kano, Niger, Yobe and Kaduna states should similarly set up judicial panels to probe the deaths of protesters and liaise with the central judicial panel in making recommendations.
The Rights group lamented that the otherwise peaceful protests sadly turned violent in most parts of the north, claiming 16 lives in a Borno suicide bomber attack and six in Niger state. The exercise was characterised by looting and confrontation with security operatives just as the HURIWA recalled that whereas the situation in the northern Nigeria during the just ended nationwide protests had forced the governments of Kano, Borno and Yobe States to declare curfew as part of measures to contain the monstrous situation but HURIWA said the killings of protesters, including those who looted public and private assets in the flashpoint states of Northern, must never be swept under the carpets.
The Rights group said there was no justification for the large scale extrajudicial killings of protesters by the security forces just as the Rights group cited example with United Kingdom where riots also took place and arsonists set off fires on private and public buildings, nevertheless the UK police didn’t deploy live bullets against the arsonists and protesters unlike what obtained in Nigeria simultaneously whereby Nigeria security forces opened fire on protesters with live bullets.
The Rights group which condemned the brazen act of extralegal execution of a 16-year-old protester in Zaria Kaduna State by the Army, emphasized that an independent probe of the execution of this teenage protester must be conducted because the Nigeria Army can’t be trusted to conduct the investigation given that Nigeria Army and the Father of the boy killed by the soldier have contradictory versions of what happened.
HURIWA said the judicial commission should ascertain the factual cause and how the teenage boy was killed because the father of late Ismail Mohammed who was killed in Samaru Zaria during the protests, alleged that his son was killed by soldiers who shot directly at his home.
HURIWA recalled that the father of the boy killed in Zaria, Malam Mohammed, in an interview said the soldiers who were scaring people away, followed his son to their house and shot him.
According to him, “My son, about 19 years old was outside the house when the soldiers started shooting. He ran inside and locked the door but the soldiers followed him and shot through the door. I was at Hayin Dogo when Abubakar called to tell me what happened. But it was after an hour that I could be able to reach home after Ismail was killed.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army says it will investigate the death of an 18-year-old boy, Isma’il Muhammad, following an alleged shooting by a soldier on patrol in Samaru, Zaria.
Maj.-Gen. MLD Saraso, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, disclosed this when he visited the family of the deceased in Zaria just as the Army’s director of Public relations Major General Onyema Nwachukwu claimed that the boy was killed accidentally by a soldier who shot to scare away the protesters.
The Rights group affirmed that the police, and also the Department of State Services denied using live bullets on protesters even when allegations of extensive deployment of live bullets by the security forces were reported all over the federation during the just ended nationwide protests against economic hardship just as the Nigeria Army confirmed the allegation that live bullets were used against protesters. HURIWA said the contradictory versions adduced by the Army and the police including the secret police, indicate that there was no truth in the claim that live bullets were not shot at the protesters.
HURIWA therefore believes that only independent judicial probe panels to be set up both by the Federal Government and the states that witnessed the killings of protesters should be activated immediately to undertake comprehensive investigation of the remote, immediate and verifiable causes and circumstances that led to the killings of protesters.
HURIWA recalled that Amnesty International claimed that it has evidence that 21 protesters were killed in Nigeria during the just ended anti- economic hardship protests.
Amnesty International accused Nigerian security forces of killing at least 21 protesters during a week of economic hardship rallies, the national head of the rights group said. Police had clamped down on protests after thousands of people joined rallies against government policies and the high cost of living. The Protests ended after ten days but not without massive crackdown by the security forces who were accused by most Nigerians of using live bullets on protesters.
A.I
Aug. 13, 2024
Tags: HURIWA
