HURIWA condemns attack of Kogi speaker by soldiers

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, a development focused and democracy inclined Non-Governmental Organization has on Monday condemned the vicious attack at the weekend of the speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly Mr. Clarence Olafemi allegedly by soldiers at the Barrack on the instruction of an unnamed retired Army General even as it called for a thorough, dispassionate and comprehensive investigation of the allegation and the prosecution of the alleged human rights violators to serve as deterrent to other soldiers all over the Federation who may still want to take the law into their hands in resolving private altercations.

The Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly who acted once as the Acting Governor of the State was attacked according to news report at the Chari Magumari Barracks while returning from a state function in Isanlu, headquarters of Yagba East Local Government area of the State. The retired Army General reportedly ran into the convoy of the speaker severally from Isanlu, and in a bid to ascertain his mission, the Speaker ordered his driver to stop but questions put across to the General by the Speaker led to a confrontation even as the General put a call across to some soldiers in a near-by Barracks which subsequently resulted in the physical abuse of both the speaker and his chief security detail.

The Rights Group in a statement endorsed by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko condemned the attack as an ‘unwarranted savagery and an act of barbarism’ which must not be swept under the carpet just as it called on the Chief of Defence Staff AIR Marshall Paul Dike to order immediate, comprehensive and transparent public investigation into the remote and immediate causes of this show of shame by some serving members of the Nigeria Army who are maintained at the expense of the ordinary citizens with taxpayers’ money so that they can protect the territorial integrity of our Fatherland and not to terrorize unarmed civilians at the slightest provocation.

Reminding the men and officers of the Nigeria military that they are bound by the provisions of the 1999 constitution as the supreme law of the land, HURIWA cited section 34[1] of the constitution which states that; ‘’Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly no person SHALL be subjected to torture or to inhuman and degrading treatment...,’’even as the Rights Group asserted that the vicious attack on the person of the Speaker of the Kogi State legislature constitute a gross violation of several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Peoples and Human Rights Charter which is a domestic law in Nigeria having been substantially domesticated in the Country.

HURIWA called on the hierarchy of the Nigeria military to convoke a national training programmes to sensitize the men and officers of the Nigerian military on what constitute violations of the Human Rights of citizens and also ensure that every Nigerian citizen who seeks to join the Nigerian military at whatever level are made to pass through a rigorous Human Rights test to ascertain their level of readiness to comply with the chapter four of the 1999 constitution and all relevant Human Rights treaties and charters endorsed by Nigeria as a member of the civilized World and the United Nations. ‘’The military authority must as a matter of national urgency organize series of national seminars and training programmes for the men and officers of the Nigerian military to sensitize them on their obligations to respect the Human Rights of all citizens. It will be good if the knowledge of the Human Rights provisions in chapter four of the 1999 constitution and the readiness of the operatives to respect them are made the prerequisite for career progression in the Nigeria military’’, HURIWA stated.