The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Thursday berated President Muhammadu Buhari for the current state of insecurity across the country.
HURIWA also asked President Buhari to blame himself for the level of insecurity in Nigeria.
The rights group made the call while condemning the arrest of protesters in Katsina State.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the rights group also canvassed for the unconditional release of all the leaders of the protests in the North arrested by the security forces on alleged orders of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the rights group, peaceful protests are covered by chapter four of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which guarantees citizenship rights such as freedoms of association, Expression and Movement.
The statement reads: “The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is first and foremost the father of the nation and the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria whose primary duty as spelt out in the Constitution in section 15(2) (B) that the security and welfare of the people SHALL be the Primary Purpose of Government, must never be seen offering lame, timid and inexcusable reasons for the widespread violence and mass killings going on all over the Country with Northern Nigeria as the epicenter of TERRORISM and armed conflicts.
“This government in Abuja has for five years given meaningless excuses on why it can not arrest, prosecute and punish mass killers. This is absolutely intolerable. The President is constitutionally obliged to defend and protect all the territorial assets of Nigeria from all armed marauders, terrorists and armed bandits.
“If he or she lacks the strategy to so actualize stability of the National security then he/she has no business remaining in office a day more than he has failed to discharge the Primary Constitutional imperative of his office because the citizens are the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria who gave the President the legitimacy to exercise authority for a statutory period of time in line with the provisions of the Supreme Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“HURIWA has watched as groups of youth organizations known commonly as the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY), Northern States’ chapters in their state capitals and across the North including Katsina State staged peaceful protests over incessant killings in Niger State and the entire northern states.
“The CNY is blaming the governments for inaction in tackling the security challenges bedeviling northern Nigeria as armed bandits kill citizens, rape women and their daughters and destroy properties with impunity while the government seems to be watching helplessly”.
The groups which made recommendations on how to check insecurity lamented that hundreds of people have been rendered homeless, properties that cannot be quantified monetarily destroyed or stolen, millions of Naira paid as ransom, children orphaned and human dignity butchered”.
HURIWA has also blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the mass killings because of the unconstitutional and illegal practice of releasing detained terrorists into the society as repentant terrorists as against the demands of the common laws to prosecute and punish mass murderers in accordance with the provisions of the law.
“No sane society that is functional and lawful will release killers without letting them face the full weight of the law. A nation that dines and wines with terrorists as the current Administration does, will inevitably be providing resources for armed terrorists to destabilise the country “.
