Following their inaction and failure to arrest the leaders of the secessionist Northern groups that served a quit notice on Igbos to quit the 19 Northern States, a rights group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has accused the Department of State services (DSS); the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force of double standards “and applying sectionalised enforcement of selective laws.”

In a statement to condemn what it called “deliberately ambiguous” and highly illogical and deceptive media statement by the DSS on Sunday on the threat by Arewa groups against Igbos to unleash anarchy against Igbos in Northern Nigeria should they fail to quit by October 1, the rights group said the DSS was being clever-by-half by wilfully abdicating its statutory function to rein in the renegade Arewa groups just because the hierarchy of most security institutions in Nigeria are of Hausa/Fulani extractions.

HURIWA said: “We condemn absolutely the failure of all the relevant security agencies to arrest a group of Nigerians who did not only apply hate speeches against Igbos living in the North but have threaten to apply extralegal mechanisms to enforce their illegal expulsion order should the Igbos resident in Northern Nigeria States refuse to vacate by October 1st 2017.

“We are shocked that the same DSS and the Army that have so far applied the fiercest means to tackle the peaceful agitators for self determination (IPOB) have suddenly gone to slumber since the last ten days that sixteen identifiable Northern youth leaders addressed a media conference at the Arewa House Kaduna to categorically call for the immediate balkanisation of Nigeria along ethnic lines were not rounded up and prosecuted for high treason and threat to unleash anarchy and genocide.

“But the same DSS was quick to arrest Mr Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) upon his return to Nigeria from Britain for preaching exactly the same positions already canvassed by the 16 Northern groups. This is double standards and sectionalism which stands absolutely condemned and remains repugnant to good conscience.

“We call on the Acting President to order the immediate arrest of the 16 Arewa groups’ leaders or to immediately end the political persecution of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) before Justice Binta Murtallah-Nyako. Any decision short of arresting and prosecuting the leaders of these Northern groups amounts to a grave violations of the Constitution and also signpost the elevation of double standards in law enforcement which will inevitably spark off the end of democracy in Nigeria. Apart from section 41 (1) of the constitution which guarantees freedom of movement and residence to all citizens all across Nigeria, these Northern groups openly called for the division of Nigeria but the DSS is very okay with this Northern brand of secessionist tendency but would be quick to arrest unarmed members of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB).”

HURIWA also said it is a big shame, “that the security forces are pandering to Ethno-Religious sentiments favouring the North because the persons who had committed the atrocious hate crime of stoking ethnic hatred and national chaos against a section of Nigerians are from the Hausa/Fulani stocks of Northern Nigeria which produced 85 percent of the top commanders and heads of security forces appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari-himself being Fulani by Ethnic origin like his top military commanders against the Federal character principle of the Constitution.

“Why did the DSS not apply the same yardstick and/standard of only cautioning Mr. Nnamdi Kanu against carrying on with the broadcasting of the purported hate speeches from his London based Radio Biafra but was the same persons who clinically executed his arrest from a Lagos hotel and his detention for two years before he was granted an obnoxious bail by the Adamawa State born Justice Binta Murtalah-Nyako?

“Why is it that the Army and Police who have committed horrendous human rights violations and extralegal executions of unarmed members of Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) have maintained CONSPIRATORIAL SILENCE since the 16 Northern groups issued a clear threat of violence against Igbos living in the North?

“These evil applications of selective enforcement of the law by the statutorily created security institutions in Nigeria will inevitably damage the integrity and credibility of these vital institutions because Nigerians and persons from all over the World are watching them closely. Let all persons of good conscience condemn this outrageous crime against humanity because for the relevant security agencies to look the other way whilst agents of disintegration from the North are allowed to get away with the crime of treason and the use of hate speeches then the essence of setting up such bodies has been rubbished in a very spectacular fashion.”

HURIWA recalled that the 16 Northern groups had two weeks ago addressed a press conference at the Arewa House Kaduna whereby their leaders took turn to tongue lash the Igbos and proceeded to illegally issue a three months quit notice for Igbos living in the 19 Northern States to vacate their Northern base and return to the South East of Nigeria and for Northerners in the South East to return to the North.

“The Northern groups threatened to apply the use of force to compel compliance even as the Northern Elders forum of Alhaji Ango Abdullahi a former vice chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria backed the Northern youth groups which issued the quit notice against Igbos in the North and warned the security forces to stay off and never to contemplate arresting these Northern youths,” HURIWA said.

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