Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has expressed anger over President Muhammadu Buhari's persistent failure to protect Nigerians in almost eight years of his administration.

HURIWA, in a statement on Tuesday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, faulted the visit of the presidential campaign of the All Progressives Congress to Katsina on Monday despite the killing of over 100 vigilantes in Gidan Gamji village, Danmaidaki ward of Kankara Local Government Area of the state, stating that it was the height of insensitivity by the ruling party.

The group said if the APC is sympathetic to the plight of the people, the party should have suspended its campaign in Katsina with the unprecedented killing of over 100 vigilantes by bandits in the North-West geopolitical zone, saying campaign while the people of the state mourned is a mockery of the sensibility of the people and the entire indigenes in Nigeria.

The group also scolded the President over the redesign of the naira notes and the new deadline of February 10, saying the scarcity of naira notes has led to the death of at least one customer who slumped and died after hours of waiting in Agbor, Delta State.

The group said millions of Nigerians have been stranded in the last few weeks, with Point of Sale operators charging as high as N2,000 when people come to withdraw just N10,000. This is scandalous and exorbitant and totally avoidable if the CBN and its governor, Godwin Emefiele have done the needful to release the needed new notes to the populace.

"President Muhammadu Buhari has just scored another infamous own goal and has earned a treacherous medal as the Head of State under whose watch Nigerians were killed or died whilst struggling to pull out their savings in the Nigerian deposit banks following the ill-advised, ill-timed decision by the Governor of the Nigerian Central Bank, Mr.Godwin.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said the January 31 deadline for the invalidation of old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes is not workable and feasible under any condition, pointing out that even in the developed parts of the world like the United Kingdom which changed the image on four polymer banknotes (£5, £10, £20 and £50) upon the demise of Queen Elizabeth II last year and replaced her with that of the new monarch, King Charles III, such a deadline was not fixed.

The group also sought a one-year extension deadline by the CBN for all Nigerians, especially those in remote and unbanked areas to exchange their old notes for new ones.

He said, “We have read the condemnation of the President on the Katsina attack by bandits where over 100 vigilantes were killed in cold blood. Yet again, the incapacitated President who can't protect Nigerians is busy wailing. He would go ahead to attend a presidential rally in the state just while the people are mourning. If that is not a mockery, then it is what?

“It remains a wonder why the National Assembly is so dysfunctional that the executive arm heavily bribes it to overlook the failures of President Muhammad Buhari to protect lives and property and stop him from using soldiers and police to kill protesters.

“We call on the international community to take diplomatic steps to sanction President Buhari over these actions.”

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