Civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to take responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of an Abuja newspaper vendor, Mr. Ifeanyi Okereke, by one of his security aides.

The group dismissed as “tepid explanation” offered by the parliamentarian on the tragic but entirely avoidable incident.

HURIWA said the Speaker is in the terrible habit of moving about and around Abuja with hundreds of people in his convoy and wonders why such a man that had his higher education and worked in a civilised clime like the United States of America could be so power-drunk and primitive as to intimidate poor residents of Abuja each time he needs to attend a function.

The group alleged that “the other day at a five star hotel, the Speaker was seen with nearly one hundred people attending just one meeting,” adding that “the fuel and human resources wasted in running the office of Speaker in the current administration is outrageous and wayward.”

HURIWA condemned the killing of the vendor as “pure murder” and demanded for the immediate arrest, prosecution and punishment for murder of the trigger-happy cop who shot and killed the Abuja vendor.

“In management as well as in political leadership, the revered ethical principles of responsibility and accountability demands that Speaker Gbajabiamila takes total responsibility for the irresponsible conduct of his personal security assistant who reports directly to him.

“The Speaker showed insensitivity and reckless lack of empathy by failing to render first aid assistance to the vendor the moment he was shot going by the reports that the Speaker allegedly asked the trigger-happy security detail why he shot at the vendor.

“The attempt by the Speaker to spread propaganda seeking to exculpate or exonerate his person from that despicable crime is totally unacceptable.

“Accountability in the considered opinion of intellectuals and scholars is a readiness to have one’s actions judged by others and, where appropriate, accept responsibility for errors, misjudgments and negligence and recognition for competence, conscientiousness, excellence and wisdom.

“While responsibility is defined as a bundle of obligations associated with a role, accountability could be defined as “blaming or crediting someone for an action” — normally associated with a recognised responsibility. The accountable actor is “held to external oversight, regulation, and mechanisms of punishment aimed to externally motivate responsive adjustment in order to maintain adherence with appropriate moral standards of action.”

The rights group said the Speaker should and must take responsibility.

In the statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Ms Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA asked the Speaker to tender his resignation and also ensure that the killer security detail is prosecuted and sanctioned for murder.

It called for a thorough investigation of the incident adding that it was almost impossible that the Speaker was unaware that his security staff had killed a vendor going by the fact that he was indeed the person who stopped to allegedly offer cash gifts to the vendors who stampeded to share from his “naira rain” before his security aide extra legally killed the innocent poor vendor.

The rights group said the Speaker should pay a compensation of N100 million to the family of the newspaper vendor that was slaughtered by a security detail working for him.

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