?Says any reprisal could lead to civil war

Prominent civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called on the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Security Adviser to fish out the miscreants and outlaws in Northern Nigeria who are making videos being posted on social media calling for Northern Muslims to attack Christians and Southerners living in the North.

In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA warned that should the miscreants in the North make good their openly canvassed warmongering, the consequences would be far-reaching as the vicious circle of reprisal all over the South could unleash a civil war. The security forces should make hay whilst the sun shines and should chase these black goats now before the night arrives.

HURIWA said: ?The media is replete with stories about certain identified miscreants operating from locations in the North of Nigeria, who are are circulating incendiary and divisive hate-filled messages through videos posted on social media advocating that Southerners and Christians residing in the North should be attacked as a revenge for the killings of some travelling ?hunters? in in Uromi Edo state.

?We are shocked that the DSS or the office of the National Security Adviser have maintained frightening but loud silence about these ominous and warmongering messages just as the security forces have so far not moved in to arrest and prevent the threats from coming to fruition or are the security forces waiting to see if those threatening would make good their threats before they are decisively taken out and dealt the severest blow in line with the due process of the law??

HURIWA recalled that a man from northern Nigeria has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to President Bola Tinubu and Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, demanding swift action to identify and apprehend those responsible for the killing of 16 Northerners in Uromi, Edo State.

In a video seen by the media on Tuesday, he threatened that failure to do so would lead to retaliatory attacks against Southerners residing in the North.

In the three-minute, 30-second video obtained, the unidentified man expressed his concerns over the killings, stating that Northerners would not remain patient in the face of such attacks.

He implied that any reprisals in the North should be blamed on Southerners.

Besides, another person identified as a northerner putting on a uniform of the Nigeria police, reportedly wrote on his Facebook page that he would take revenge on the killing of Northerners in Uromi.

Reacting, HURIWA warned that the DSS and other intelligence agencies must swiftly move to arrest these persons instigating others and actually threatening to orchestrate a bloody revenge on Southerners living in the North and bring them to book. The Rights group said these threats are real and must be taken seriously and nipped in the bud before the threats are actualised.

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