Date Published: 01/25/10

Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation (HRJPF)

93, Market Road, First Floor (Back)

Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

E-mail: hrjpfoundation@yahoo.com

+234 (0) 803 505 6312

January 22, 2010

Press Release

Jos Crisis: HRJPF Commends Abia, Delta Governors

The Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation (HRJPF) commends Chief Theodore Ahamefula Orji, the Executive Governor of Abia State, for borrowing a leaf from his Delta State counterpart to send buses to evacuate his people from the crisis-ridden city of Jos, the capital of Plateau State.

Although this singular act portrays Chief Orji as a Governor that is committed to the protection of the lives and property of his people; the HRJPF believes that until he orders the Abia State Vigilante Services, aka, the Bakassi boys, to stop forthwith extra-judicial killings in Abia State, the world will continue to think otherwise.

It is the studied opinion of the HRJPF that a situation where an accused is, rather than tried in an open court, is slaughtered, in some cases, in full glare of the public, like Christmas goat depicts Abia as a den of anarchists. Governor Orji therefore owes it a duty to ensure the individual’s right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence, as enshrined in Article 11 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is respected.

While calling on other states in southern Nigeria to follow suit in evacuating their citizens from Jos, the HRJPF calls on the Federal Government to put in place measures to forestall future reoccurrence of the callous spilling of the blood of innocent people in any part of the federation.

Comrade Chidi Nwosu

President