EditorProminent pro-democracy group Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has reacted to the arrest of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho.
The group accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s government of waging internecine warfare against self determination agitators from Southern Nigeria but has refused stubbornly to declare armed Fulani herdsmen and armed Fulani militia including the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association which backs mass killings of Christian farmers by armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorist groups.
Prime Business Africa reported that Igboho was arrested by security forces in Benin Republic at an airport in Cotonou on Monday night.
In a statement it released after the arrest of the Yoruba Nation activist, HURIWA said the selective arrests of mainly Southern Nigerian born agitators whilst pampering and petting Fulani terrorists is a at variance to Chapter 4.
It said section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution which represents the Right To Freedom From Discrimination that provides thus:
“(1) A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person:-
(a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or
(b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions.(2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.
(3) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall invalidate any law by reason only that the law imposes restrictions with respect to the appointment of any person to any office under the State or as a member of the armed forces of the Federation or member of the Nigeria Police Forces or to an office in the service of a body, corporate established directly by any law in force in Nigeria.”
“President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has clearly demonstrated to the World that it is only out to stop crusaders in Southern Nigeria who have effectively activated mechanisms for checking and slowing down the incessant violence and terror attacks against communities all over Southern Nigeria by armed Fulani militia supported by Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association.”
“The administration of Muhammadu Buhari by fiercely going after Sunday Igboho of the Yoruba self determination agitation platform and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu of the erroneously proscribed indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and then maintaining unpatriotic silence and active conspiratorial silence on the dastardly terrorists activities of Muhammadu Buhari’s kinsmen the armed Fulani attackers and kidnappers including those who shot down military jet in Zamfara State, what this government has shown together with its refusal to ease out the Minister of communications and digital economy Sheikh Ibrahim Pantami who was clearly caught supporting Al- Queada and the Taleban Islamic terror group in Afghanistan, is that the central government supports the activities of the Fulani militants masquerading as Fulani herdsmen who are on a well coordinated rampage to seize the ancestral lands of Southerners including the Christian dominated Southern Kaduna State whose communities have continued to face devastating violence and terror attacks from the armed Fulani militia and kidnappers”.
“The Government by this latest clampdown on Sunday Igboho has demonstrated unambiguous evidence of supporting the agenda of MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE BREEDERS ASSOCIATION which only few days back made senseless allegation that South West Governors are providing refuge for Sunday Igboho even when the gentleman has committed no crime but is being framed up over trumped up charges made the Department of State Services that seems to be working in cahoot with the Fulani ethnic warriors.
“His arrest is illegal and unconstitutional because his declaration as a wanted person in the first instance was a nullity because he is staying away for his safety and to avoid the cruel fate that befell his associates who were murdered by the Niger State in Ibadan”.
HURIWA however stated that Sunday Igboho may have decided to find safe Haven to avoid facing a cruel fate which befell some of his allies who were gruesomely murdered by the Nigerian State when the Nigerian secret police had raided Igboho’s Ibadan residence in the Soka area on July 1, 2021, just as the invading armed secret police who reportedly shot sporadically and destroy many cars, killed several cats and human beings and arrested about 12 of his aides and killed two of them in a gun duel.
“We think Mr. Sunday Igboho is a prisoner of conscience just like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who was illegally abducted in Kenya and repatriated to Nigeria. In the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, he alleged that his life was threatened when soldiers invaded his father’s Palace but in the case of Sunday Igboho he ran to save his dear life because there was imminent threats to his life and those of his affiliates only because they took action to chase out the invading armed Fulani herdsmen.”
“Nigerians should ask the President to declare Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association and the armed Fulani attackers bombarding all parts of Nigeria as terrorists groups or else it should be noted by all and sundry that President Muhammadu Buhari is actually supporting the agenda of these Fulani terrorists to destabilise Nigeria in their attempts to take away lands from natives of communities in the South and other Christian dominated areas in Northern Nigeria”.
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