From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as ’empty highfalutin sloganeering gambit’ the Peace in the South East project (PISE-P) initiated by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.
Kalu had birthed the PISE-P to combat insecurity and the sit-at-home conundrum, which has engulfed almost all parts of the South East.
However, HURIWA’s National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko in a statement yesterday, noted that initiative lacked depth or philosophical underpinning to resolve the heightened insecurity in the South East.
According to Onwubiko, only real social justice to families whose members have been were killed can bring succor.
He argued that the heightened state of insecurity in the South East demands profound “philosophical solutions that should of necessity include the effective, efficient delivery of well grounded social justice to families of those who have lost their members through the use of extrajudicial killings by armed security forces and the concomitant killings of members of security agents by suspected gunmen and arsonists.”
He cited the case in Imo State whereby the state government compensated families of security agents unlawfully killed by militants but neglected hundreds of civilians and innocent Igbo youths killed by security agents.
He added that from January 2021, gunmen suspected to be militants launched a series of attacks on government infrastructure, including prisons and public buildings, killing several police officers.
“For instance, in two of the cases documented by Amnesty international, the victims were targeted with no apparent justification:
Uguchi Unachukwu, a German-based businessman was killed by soldiers on 31 May at a checkpoint near Owerri airport on his way out of the country.
“The police are yet to investigate the crime. Mathew Opara, a 45-year-old businessman, was shot by soldiers on 25 May 2021 in Orji, near Owerri.
“Witnesses told Amnesty International that he was returning from work when he ran into a team of soldiers in armoured vehicle and Hilux vans shooting at residents.
“He was shot in the chest and could not receive immediate medical help because of the violence. His family said the military acknowledged the killing but did not launch an investigation or offer any apology.”
He continued: “HURIWA is therefore informing the deputy speaker that sloganeering built upon political rhetorical statements aimed at achieving personal or selfish political aggrandisement, is the wrong approach towards finding lasting, sustainable panacea to the crises of insecurity and instability in the South East.
“Unless and until there is adequate accountability on the part of state administrations in the South East and especially in Imo State and until erstwhile Niger Delta militant warlord, Mr. Asari Dokubo who confessed to be undertaking a security job in the South East with his private army, is brought to book and all the killings properly investigated, the real killers identified, arrested and prosecuted, it is difficult to convince anyone that the mere slogan set up by the deputy speaker can have any utilitarian objectives for the Igbo states.
“Besides, how do you want to convince Igbo not to talk about being systematically marginalised when the highest political position that the Igbo which is one of the three majority ethnicities in Nigeria can get from the Tinubu’s administration is the less fancied and seemingly inconsequential office of deputy speaker?”