Insecurity: ‘Stop assaulting our sensibilities and spreading fake news, HURIWA replies Lai Mohammed on ‘the worst is over’ claims

Group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as ‘irresponsible, irrational and vacuous,’ recent statement credited to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, where the latter had claimed that the country is now secure from terrorists and other criminals.

According to the minister, the recent charge by President Muhammadu Buihari to the military to show no mercy to terrorists have started yielding results, as the ‘worst is now over’ from insecurity.

It would be recalled that while addressing a World Press Conference in Abuja, Monday, the minister assured that the ‘worst is over’ in Nigeria, as he said the country’s security agencies ‘have succeeded in pushing criminal elements to the edges and substantially restoring security across the land.’

Speaking further at the press briefing, the minister assured Nigerians that ‘never again will terrorists, bandits and their cohorts hold sway.’

“As you are all aware, the issue of security has dominated our national discourse in recent times, against the background of the terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in the North-East, North-West and North Central; separatist violence and crude oil theft in the South-East and South-South as well as cultism, armed robbery and sundry crimes in the South-West.”

Mohamed said the security challenges have been daunting – from terrorism to banditry to kidnapping to separatist violence to crude oil theft to armed robbery and sundry crimes.

“It’s undoubtedly the greatest challenge to the peace and security of our great nation since the civil war from 1967 to 1970. It is the kind of challenge that would have overwhelmed many nations.

“But thanks to the purposeful leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, we can say, I want to repeat, that the worst is over and peace and security are gradually returning to the land.

“Please don’t misunderstand or misrepresent this assertion. We may still witness isolated cases of security challenges here and there, but it will not be on the scale that we have witnessed in the past.

“When many called for the use of foreign mercenaries to tackle the challenges, especially terrorism and banditry, President Buhari never wavered in his belief in the ability of our gallant men and women in uniform to rise to the occasion, and rise to the occasion they did.

“Some said the security challenges have overwhelmed the military, but the military has now demonstrated that no group of ragtag criminals can ever overwhelm them.

“Terrorists and bandits can run but cannot hide, and this has been demonstrated by the arrest of those who attacked a church in Owo.

“These criminals can run but cannot hide, as we have seen in the decimation of the cowards who ambushed the Brigade of Guards troops in Abuja.

“I am sure you will hear from my colleagues how our military and other security agencies have been decimating the top echelon of ISWAP and Boko Haram, how armed bandits camps and resources have been destroyed, and how the capacity of IPOB/ESN has been substantially degraded.”

The Minister said that whereas in conventional warfare, the parties can declare a truce or cessation of hostilities, upon reaching an agreement, however, ‘it is not the same for the kind of unconventional warfare that the military has been fighting in recent years,’ he said.

“We are therefore not saying the battle is over. No. What we are saying is that our military and other security agents have been able to contain the daunting security challenges we face, and that the worst is indeed over.

“We have now put the terrorists, bandits and their ilk on the run and we will not relent until they have been crushed.

“We must also realize that security is the business of everyone, hence the tagline; ‘if you see something, say something.’ Terrorists or bandits are not spirits.

“They are human beings, and some of them reside in our communities. They must all be exposed and crushed for peace to reign.”

Nigeria has faced worsening state of security across parts of the country as killings targeted at mostly state operators, kidnappings and ransom takings by bandits and terrorists and extra-judicial killings and abductions of perceived critics of state, have dominated discourse.

The spate of terrorism has also increased to worrying levels in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) the seat of political power, as terrorists lay siege to both civilians and military operatives in unprecedented attacks unseen in the country’s history before now.

The situation prompted lawmakers of the Upper Chambers of the National Assembly to issue a six-week ultimatum to President Buhari to resolve the security situation of face impeachment by the senators, last month.

However, reacting to the minister’s claims, the rights group, HURIWA dared Mohammed ‘to travel by road with no security cover from Abuja to Zamfara, Katsina, Borno and then back to Abuja through the Lokoja/Kwali Abuja Federal Highway,” to confirm his claims.

 HURIWA aid this in a statement signed by Emmanuel Onwubiko, its National Coordinator.

The group said while making the journey, the Minister should stop over at the Okene highway near Ajaokuta in Kogi State, adding that ‘if the minister is able to embark on this journey which should be televised live on NTA, Trust television and AIT then maybe his statement about improved security may be listened to by right thinking human beings that are rational.’

“We find it completely ludicrous but insensitive, reckless and unacceptable that in the face of the heightened security challenges confronting Nigerians including the 28 bus passengers in Ondo that were just kidnapped into the Ondo forests by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen, the holder of the office of information minister will continue to assault our sensibilities and spread fake news,” the group said.

According to HURIWA, the minister ‘must be living on a very distant planet from the earth for him not to be aware that in some parts of Katsina State, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, armed terrorists have started carrying out government jobs and reportedly arresting petty thieves and handing them over to the police.’

The group reminded the minister that in parts of Kaduna State and Zamfara State, farmers now pay taxes to terrorists even as a terrorist kingpin was recently inaugurated as a traditional title holder in Zamfara depicting a failed state.

Also, HURIWA recalled that a few days ago, elders of rural communities in Katsina State lamented that men in their villages now work as slaves on farms ‘owned’ by bandits, even as the hoodlums have developed a taste for constantly raping married women and teenage girls.

HURIWA narrated that a newly posted Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna State, was kidnapped and for weeks has been in chains.

The group specifically recalled that the DPO was abducted along the notorious Kaduna-Birnin Gwari highway around 9am a few weeks back on his way to assume duty at his new place of assignment, according to sources who confirmed the incident to journalists on conditions of anonymity.

‘It is not clear whether the police officer was travelling alone in the vehicle when he was abducted or not, as the Kaduna State Police Command was yet to issue an official statement on the development.’

The rights advocacy group recalled that the Birnin Gwari local government area of the state has been in the news lately for various attacks and abductions by terrorists, ‘and it was last Sunday that a terrorist group known as Ansaru issued a statement banning political activities in some communities of the local government area.’

The Rights group stated that as of today, reports have it that friends of the abducted DPO have paid over N5 million requested ransom including motorcycles and hard drugs given to the terrorists but even the bearer of the ransom was kidnapped and the DPO still in chains.

HURIWA has therefore encouraged Nigerians to take steps to provide self-defence to themselves in any way possible because the Right to life guaranteed by the Constitution in Section 33(1) can’t be remedied once the citizens are slaughtered by marauding terrorists who are now on a rampage even as the government officials are bandying fake news that security has improved. Besides, the Rights group is appealing to the international community to help save Nigerians from imminent deaths from the terrorist attacks of daredevil criminals and terrorists.