HURIWA CONDEMNS VIOLENT CRACKDOWN OF SHIITE’S PROCESSION BY ARMY, KILLING OF HUNTERS IN EDO:
Pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the weekend’s violent crackdown by the Nigeria Army of the procession staged in Abuja by the Islamic sect known as Shiite in which over a dozen persons were killed just as the Rights group expressed shock and consternation at the gruesome mass murder of a group of travelling hunters mistaken for kidnappers in Edo State and massacred by vigilante members.
HURIWA said it is so unfortunate that Nigeria has become the killing field whereby armed state and non-state actors are going about taking away precious lives of mostly innocent citizens even as the Rights group wondered how and why the government in Abuja has often permitted the military and police to use lethal weapons and live bullets instead of water canons and rubber bullets to break up demonstrations staged by citizens.
HURIWA said the rampant deployment of armed security forces to use weapons of death to quell civil protests, processions, demonstrations or even peaceful assembly is what has provided the needed motivation for armed non state actors to continue to kill citizens at the slightest opportunity available to them.
“Whereas we condemn the members of Shiite Islamic sect for not complying with the reported denial of permission by the National Security Adviser to stage a procession on the streets of Abuja in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the Rights group blamed the armed security forces for mismanagement of the measures to quell the procession by resorting to public deployment of lethal weapons in a highly and densely populated Wuse two urban centre at a time that commercial activities and government agencies were operating at optimal levels”.
“Honestly, the Nigeria Army should be told that the rules of engagement in internal security operations forbid them to open fire publicly which endangers even innocent members of the public who are not part of the crowds that the Army intended to disperse. Civility demands that non-lethal equipments should be used to disperse civilian crowds especially when nobody in the crowds is armed and intended on killing the soldiers. This method of internal security operation is primitive, brutish, unconstitutional and undemocratic. We condemn the killing of one soldier during the incident in Abuja and we hope there would be transparent investigations to ascertain why this level of deployment of lethal weapons on civilian populated area in the very busy Friday afternoon.
Citing Section 217 (2) (c) of the 1999 Constitution and Section (8) (1) and (3) of the Armed Forces Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, (LFN) 2004 which provides the code of conduct and rules of engagement for the armed forces in internal security, HURIWA condemned the use of violent force by the Army.
The Rights group said for instance, no officer or soldier must be found aiding or abetting any act of arson, vandalism or unprofessional conduct; and troops are duty bound to intervene in any situation to avoid a breakdown in peace, stability or law and order of an area where they are deployed.
Other highlights of the ROE include:
The principle of minimum force and proportionality must be applied at all times; whenever operational situation permits, every reasonable effort shall be made to control the situation through measures short of using force, including personal contact and negotiations; the use of lethal force shall only be resorted to if all other means to control the situation have failed or in case of unexpected attack or suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack during which a delay could lead to loss of life or serious injury to personnel; and that any force applied must be limited in its intensity and duration; it must also be commensurate with the level of threat posed.
Force shall be used only when absolutely necessary to achieve an immediate aim; the decision to open fire shall be made only on orders and under the control of on-scene commander, unless there is insufficient time to obtain such order. Fire can however be opened if the life of a soldier, any law-abiding member of the public and/or property of which it is our duty to protect is in grave danger; fire must be aimed and controlled. Indiscriminate firing is not permitted.
Fire may be opened to forcefully stop any vehicle that fails to stop at a checkpoint or road block when ordered to stop for search; automatic fire will only be opened as a last resort; avoid collateral damage; after fire has ceased, render medical assistance and record details of incident both in writing and using audio/visual equipment whether or not casualty has been recorded; and whenever in doubt, seek clarification from higher headquarters”.
HURIWA recalled that clashes between protesters and Army at a march by a Shiite group in Nigeria left a dozen people dead, according to a government intelligence report seen by AFP on Saturday.
Eleven protesters and one soldier were killed, the report said, at a pro-Palestinian demonstration held by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) on Friday in the capital Abuja.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria branch said soldiers fired live rounds at the protesters.
The IMN has been outlawed by Nigerian authorities for advocating an Islamic revolution in the West African nation.
However at the time of its banning, in 2019, researchers characterised it as more interested in protest than political violence.
The march in Abuja and other cities in Nigeria was held in honour of Quds Day, which is marked in countries around the world with pro-Palestinian protests.
Besides, at least seven suspected kidnappers were set ablaze and killed in a “barbaric” mob attack in Nigeria’s southern town of Uromi, in Edo state, the governor said on Friday.
Edo Governor Monday Okpebholo condemned the mob killing of the individuals, pledging that those responsible would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the victims, identified as northern Hausa hunters, were stopped by local security while travelling in a commercial truck.
A search of the vehicle uncovered guns, triggering a mob attack by residents who accused them of being kidnappers and Fulani herdsmen.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA Condemns this unlawful killings of citizens just on mere and unsubstantiated allegations that they were kidnappers. “If they were kidnappers, why not hand them over to the Nigeria Police force for the necessary legal prosecution?”
HURIWA said: “This kind of mob killing is what we have consistently condemned and this is why we think the federal government should not flippantly permit armed security forces to open fire on civilian protesters as we have continued to witnessed since president Tinubu assumed office and his administration has shown zero-tolerance to civil protests of any genre and has often deployed armed security forces to use maximum and deadly force to quell the protests leading to fatalities.
“These state sponsored killings of civilian protesters are exactly what motivate mobs and armed non-state actors to embark on instantaneous killings of persons suspected of committing a crime either wrongly or rightly. Government must become a respecter of the sanctity of human life. We call on the Edo state government to prosecute and punish the killers of these travelling hunters.
“We appeal to opinion leaders in the North to stop ethnicising this criminality of mass murder of hunters. This crude crime is not something that we should look at it from the prism of ethnic colouration. We must not instigate reprisal with the panicky and ethnicity coloured reactions the leaders from a section of Nigeria give to this act of despicable criminality. Let us condem criminality but let us not encourage reprisal killing of Southerners residing in the North by the way we paint this crime as if it is South versus north. The crime is reprehensible and is not a war between sections of Nigeria but between forces of good and evil which the law enforcement agencies should be allowed to treat.
*Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). March 30th 2025.
