BIAFRA : Buhari govt, officials under fire over US declaration on religious intolerance

President Muhammad Buhari government has been accused of not doing enough to protect Christians in Nigeria.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) stated this on Sunday in reaction to United States’ inclusion of the country in its watchlist.

The US listed Nigeria among ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ over its tolerance for “violations of religious freedom”.

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said the US had re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom”.

However, Comoros, Russia, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Sudan are on a “Special Watch List” for governments that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom.”

HURIWA, in a statement by its coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the indictment was appropriate as the Nigerian government had failed and refused to arrest, prosecute and punish the sponsors and actors in the serial mass killings of farmers, Christian worshippers and villagers by armed Fulani herdsmen.

HURIWA urged world leaders to mount pressure on the Nigerian government to render proper account of the number of armed kidnappers and bandits rounded up and paraded in the media by the Nigeria Police Force but yet to be tried.

The Rights group lamented that over three months since a Taraba based armed kidnapper, Hamisu Wadume and a serving Army Captain were indicted for killing three police officers, there were concerted effort to sweep the heinous crime under the carpet.

HURIWA called on international community including the US, the European Union, Canada, Germany and the International Court of Justice in the Hague Netherlands to take decisive actions and enforce measures to compel the rounding up of all the suspected killers roaming freely in Nigeria.

“The United States of America as a World power should institute a suit at the International Court of Justice against the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for tolerating crimes against humanity and crimes that are deemed as genocide carried out by armed Fulani herdsmen which gained support by some top government officials from 2015 till 2019”, it said.

The Rights group said several top ranking government officials working for President Buhari openly backed the activities of violent herdsmen by criticising some States like Benue and Taraba for legislating against open grazing of cattle by herdsmen.

HURIWA said the Presidency was yet to set up judicial commissions of inquiry to arrest those who unleashed violence on selected Christian communities in Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Adamawa, Taraba and Benue States, the killing of several Catholic Priests, systematic kidnapping of Christian Pastors, among others.

“The Nigerian government have failed to implement effective strategies to prevent or stop such violence or to hold perpetrators accountable as disclosed in the United States’ report and these are factually accurate and can’t be contradicted by anybody of superior arguments or body of empirical knowledge.

“These are the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We plead with the US government to impose sanctions on the federal government headed by the former military leader Muhammadu Buhari”, the group requested.