Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has blamed the spate of attacks of soft targets all across the country, including the upsurge in the abduction for ransom of school children of Katsina State by daredevil terrorists, on President Muhammadu Buhari.

HURIWA said the frequent rehabilitation, reintegration and the so-called de-radicalization of arrested terrorists by the government is the reason for the spate of bloody violence and kidnappings.

The rights group said in a statement that the release of detained Boko Haram terrorists by the government of President Buhari over the years under the dubious guise that they are rehabilitated as repentant terrorists deserving reintegration even whilst over two million families displaced by these terrorists are scattered in the different dilapidated buildings and huts called Internally Displaced Centres are neglected and denied justice for the killings of their breadwinners and loved ones, are the exact reasons for the widespread attacks by the terrorists in the northern part of Nigeria.

The group also has also blamed some state governors, especially that of Katsina State, Bello Massari, for the growing social menace of armed abductions of school children, wanton sexual violations of girls and the rampant attacks of communities in Katsina State because the governor has been known to have publicly associated and communed with notorious terrorists also called armed bandits who were allegedly settled by the State administration to lay down their weapons and cease fire which the terrorists never complied with.

The rights group said the Zamfara State governor has also been known to have allegedly financially induced terrorists and armed bandits to drop their weapons and end the attacks but which they never adhered to because as soon as the cash settlements are exhausted the heavily armed non-state actors usually launch massive and bloody attacks leading to the killings of hundreds of villagers.

HURIWA, which faulted the claims of Governor Masari for choosing to call the terrorists who abducted students of Government Boys Science School, Kankara, as “known local bandits”, also demanded that the United States should influence the United Nations Security Council to investigate the allegations that some powerful Nigerian officials and some elements in the security forces may be conniving with these terrorists to continue to maximise violence and to enable them to continue to line their pockets with the filthy lucre usually paid as ransom and financial inducements to terrorists in exchange for the release of the hostages such as the school children who are unfortunately used as bargaining chips.

“We are amazed that Governor Bello Masari could say that the abduction of some students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, was ‘conducted and executed’ by local bandits, contrary to the claim of Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram. So we ask the Katsina state governor to tell Nigerians the distinction between the mass killers masquerading as Islamists and those causing mayhem, carnage, and large-scale violence in the Northwest and why he thinks the latter are not terrorists?

“The Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau had said in a video after the abduction of Kankara schoolboys that ‘what happened in Katsina was done to promote Islam and discourage un-Islamic practices as Western education is not the type of education permitted by Allah and his Holy Prophet’.

“But speaking on a Channels Television programme, the Governor disagreed with the claims of Shekau, noting that information available to his administration showed that the abduction was carried out by local bandits.

HURIWA also strongly condemned "the attempt by some northern politicians to downplay the significant terrorists nexus of these daredevil attackers who have turned the entire North into a war zone since 2015 that erstwhile military despot Major General Muhammadu was inaugurated as an elected President.”

The rights group said there is a strong possibility that certain powerful persons in government, both at the Federal level and in the North, are actively fanning the embers of terrorism and insecurity in the North so as to create an atmosphere of chaos and disorder that would blackmail the rest of Nigerians to accept their ambition to also set aside multibillion dollars of crude oil resources to set up an Amnesty Office for so called repentant bandits and terrorists in the North similar to the failed Niger Delta Amnesty Programme which has become a cesspool of corruption and abuse of power by the officials of government managing the institution.

According to the statement, “HURIWA is pleased to note that the United States on Thursday condemned the abduction of the Kankara schoolboys on December 11 and urged the government to hold those responsible accountable ‘to the full extent of the law’.

“We are happy that the US Department of State condemned the abduction in a statement issued by a spokesperson, Cale Brown, after the release of the abducted students on Thursday.

“HURIWA however charges the administration of President Trump and the US Congress to go further by setting up international investigative mechanisms to ascertain the exact nexus between certain powerful persons in government both at the Federal and state governments in the North who are actively promoting terrorism in Nigeria. The US must note that a judicial institution in the United Arab Emirates has recently jailed about four funders of terrorism in Nigeria and specifically mentioned that a certain powerful alleged official of the Presidency of Buhari is the chief funder of Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria but the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria have all conspired to remain silent and collectively refused to expose the government officials funding terrorists in Nigeria.

“So, we appeal to the US to use their strong influence in the UN Security Council to institute the global investigations of the funders and funding of terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria.

“The US must make haste to stop the internal sabotage of the security of Nigerians by Nigerian officials to stop Nigeria from collapsing and constituting a global challenge in terms of the sheer number of refugees that will pour out into the rest of the world from a country of over 200 million population.”

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