Civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has admonished President Muhammadu Buhari to hold on from rejoicing over the release of the abducted school boys from Kagara in Niger State until their abductors, sponsorsand those purported to be negotiators for ransom payments are arrested, prosecuted and punished in accordance with the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

HURIWA said the government has encouraged the emergence of new kind of commercial franchises in the North amongst the armed Fulani militia groups who now go about kidnapping school children in expectation of huge payouts.

“We condemned this latest absurdity of paying terrorists with tax payers’ money which inevitably leads to the proliferation of kidnapping armed gangs in the North,” HURIWA stated.

HURIWA recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had said he was happy to know that the abducted students of Government Science College in Kagara, Niger State have been released.

Reacting to the joy expressed by President Buhari over the release of the abducted Kagara schoolboys, the rights group said the President’s expression of happiness was premature since all over the country and especially in the Northern region of the country almost all the schools are getting shut down because the central government can’t guarantee the safety and security of the lives of the students.

HURIWA said the failure of the government to promptly arrest, prosecute and sanction the terrorist kidnappers of school children in line with the extant Anti-terrorism Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria makes the President's expression of happiness ephemeral and unrealistic.

The rights group said the refusal of the entire security architectures headed by Moslem northerners to crackdown on these armed non state actors shows that they are compromised and can’t be trusted to protect the nation from external aggressions and internal security nightmares.

“Ordinarily, we completely comprehend the happiness and rejoicing that will be going on amongst the families of these unfortunate victims of terrorism who are now free from their hostage and from their kidnappers. We too are in solidarity with these citizens.

“However, all around Nigeria there is a growing climate of uncertainty and the fear of the unknown going by the refusal and manifest failures of the current administration to decisively deal with terrorists and their sympathisers such as the Kaduna-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Gumi who committed the treasonable act of singling our Chritsian-born members of the armed security forces for blame over the attacks in the past that targeted the armed Fulani militia and terrorists who are now engaging in the indiscriminate Kidnappings of school children for ransom payments.

“Mr. President has yet to convince any Nigerian that his administration has not self-inflicted herself with the characteristic of a toothless bulldog who barks but can’t bite.

“Once more, we condemn the refusal of the Federal government of President Buhari to ensure that these identified terrorists seen in different photographs posing with the Kaduna Moslem cleric Sheikh Gumi are taken out and or demobilised, disarmed and prosecuted under the existing counter terror laws of the Federation.

“Appeasement of terrorists in Nigeria by the Government is unconstitutional and absolutely illegal,” HURIWA noted.

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