Urges FG to Declare National State of Emergency, Enforce Anti-terror Law.
By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
ABUJA: Following the insecurity around schools and the rising wave of armed kidnapping of school children in Nigeria, a civil rights group—Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has recommended death penalty for anyone found guilting of such an offense.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the HURIWA National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, expressed concerned about the spate of terror attacks targeting schools and the inability of the Central government to take clean, transparent, decisive and law based steps to protect the schools.
He noted that the incapacity and unwillingness of the federal government to protect children receiving education, is the lowest phase of insecurity and terrorism which must never be allowed to fester, adding that a nation whose political leadership is unwilling to protect school children has lost the legitimacy to govern.
According to him, “HURIWA is seriously worried by the apparent general climate of fear all around the Country. We are much more bothered about the lack of political will to effectively resolve the security issues as shown by the attitudes of the President towards combating the rising wave of armed kidnapping of school Children.
“The Primary duty of care and protection lies with the central and subnational segments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Federal Republic of Nigeria must now realize that it is time to declare a National state of emergency with a view to enforce the counter terror law.
“The failure of government of President Muhammadu Buhari to clearly declare as terrorists, the bunch of boys wielding weapons of mass destruction and abducting school children means that there is a game plan that is being played”, he remarked.
He further stressed that it has to be a capital offense for people to buy weapons for mass destruction, invade schools and kidnap students, adding that such an offense is worthy of punishment with a death penalty.
“Why is the government playing gamble with the lives of school children? Why are the kidnappers being pampered and appeased and in some cases there are allegations of financial inducements running to hundreds of millions of cash settlements to these armed non-state actors?” He queried.
He emphasized on the need to have state policing architecture, armed vigilantes to protect the schools and local government areas, and community policing to partner with the relevant security institutions in place, supported by the relevant Nigerian laws, adding that the Government needs to begin to enforce the anti-terror legislation.
In May 2011, the Nigerian National Assembly cleared the “Terrorism Prevention Act of 2011” and this was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan on June 3, 2011. The Act which was in conformity with international standards, including UN guidelines, addressed the issues of prevention, prohibition, and combating terrorism, as well as the financing of terrorism.
It also provides for the effective implementation of the ‘Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism’ as well as the ‘Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism,’ and prescribes penalties for the violation of its provisions. These penalties can range from a 20-year jail term to death sentences depending on the severity of cases.
HURIWA is calling for strict enforcement of the anti terror law to punish perpetrators of terrorism.
