•Endorses memorial for Heroes killed during Nigerian-Biafran war

Civil Rights Advocacy Group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described as unfortunate, the decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to press ahead with charges of terrorism against the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Bodejo, but has fortified the prosecution team in the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu of the indigenous. The Rights group said the decision smacks of double standards and is therefore unconstitutional.

Besides, HURIWA said there was nothing wrong with the decision of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra to ask the people of the South East to observe a period of solemnity in commemoration of all the Eastern Nigerian people who were killed during the 30-months old fratricidal war just as HURIWA has called on the South East political, religious and traditional leaders to present a common position to the Nigerian government so May 30^th is marked as a national holiday in honour of the heroes past from the Eastern Region of the first Republic Nigeria. HURIWA has however cautioned that those voluntarily willing to go about their lawful activities should be free to do so but they need to know that millions of Igbo and Eastern Region’s residents died fighting to keep the rest of us alive and safe and therefore honouring the dead with a solemnity is not too much to ask for.

HURIWA commended the government of Abia State on the diplomatic way it has handled the decision of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra to call for a memorial just as the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, had said his administration is not interested in going into unnecessary confrontation with the promoters of the May 30 sit-at-home in honour of those killed during the Nigerian civil war.

On the refusal of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to free the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), HURIWA asserted thus: “We find it unbelievably disappointing and shocking that the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi who has insisted on charging Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to court for terrorism has now chickened out in the case of the Fulani head of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore that had consistently supported acts of terrorism by armed Fulani attackers of farming communities in the 8 years of the corruption-ridden Muhammadu Buhari led government.”

HURIWA stated that over 6,000 farmers were murdered by armed Fulani attackers backed by the cattle owners just as the rights group wondered how such a leader of a group that consistently supported attacks of farmers is now a free man.

HURIWA argued that: “It is simply brutal act of hatred for the Igbo ethnic nationality for the current president to insist on charging Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for terrorism only because his group flouted the Eastern Security Network to chase away suspected armed Fulani Marauders: But the same administration that arrested the leader of Miyetti Allah over charges of terrorism for establishing armed Fulani vigilante in Nasarawa state, has now discontinued his prosecution.

“Mr. President, your action of freeing one person only because he is Fulani but has decided to press ahead with the frivolous charges of terrorism against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu because he is Igbo, is not so different from political apartheid policy which several human rights laws and section 42 (1) of Nigerian Constitution outlawed and described as discrimination.

HURIWA recalled that on the Miyetti leader’s case in which Tinubu’s administration chickened out out of fear and political favouritism, the trial judge Mr. Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has discharged the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Kore, Bello Bodejo, of an alleged terrorism charge filed against him by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

In a ruling, Justice Ekwo discharged Bodejo after counsel for the AGF, Aderonke Imana, moved an oral application for the withdrawal of the three-count charge.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, Imana informed the court that she had an oral application.

The lawyer said the application was under Section 108 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

She said the request was further predicated on the power of the AGF under Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), adding that the Attorney-General of the Federation had instructed her to withdraw the charge against the defendant in the interest of justice.

Counsel to Bodejo did not oppose the application, thanking the AGF for his magnanimous gesture.

His lead counsel, Ahmed Raji, subsequently urged the court to discharge the accused person under the sections referred to by the prosecution.

The rights group carpeted the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, for erroneously saying that the offence of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is a difficult one and can only be resolved by a competent court of law.

He added that since the matter was already in court, it should be left to the law to have its way.

While pointing out that Kanu is being held in accordance with the Constitution, he added that the matter was still in court.

HURIWA described the above statement by the Attorney-General as unfortunate and ‘shamelessly unlearned,’ even as the Rights group demanded to know from the minister of justice Lateef Fagbemi under what law the leader of MIYETTI ALLAH KAUTAL KORE was initially arrested on the orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and even dragged to the federal High Court by this Attorney-General.

Justice Nyako had on Monday, dismissed the request by Kanu for the restoration of his revoked bail and the removal from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), to a house. But HURIWA described the judgment as unfortunate and sad.

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