A pro-democracy body, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has demanded an end to the military occupation of South East of Nigeria, urging President Muhammadu Buhari not to destroy the geo-political zone under the guise of military training that ought to take place in the Boko Haram occupied Sambisa forest in the North East.

Stressing that the Federal Government under President Buhari must be restrained from unleashing instability and destruction of private assets in the South East, the rights group said over half a century after the Nigeria/Biafra civil war, the devastated infrastructures of the old Eastern region have not been rebuilt.

In a statement endorsed jointly by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the group denounced the ongoing military activities in the peaceful South East of Nigeria by the Nigeria Army.

HURIWA said the Federal Government must not be allowed to destroy property and assets built up after the war by individuals in South East of Nigeria.

The rights group had in the media statement wondered why the Nigeria Army did not make use of the large expanse of land known as Sambisa forest for the python dance since it had made several claims of chasing away armed Boko Haram terrorists.

It likened the ongoing military operation to a declaration of state of emergency by another guise stating that the peaceful and unarmed groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) do not pose any threats to the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

HURIWA stated that most people in the South East view the operation as military occupation because of the skewed concentration of virtually 75 percent of military weapon depots and institutions in the North of Nigeria just as it called on the National Assembly to compel the Nigeria armed forces to decentralise the location of strategic military infrastructures across the geopolitical zones making up Nigeria to douse the mutual recrimination and suspicions that the Army is dominated by Northerners.

Besides, the rights group lamented the rapid decline of respect for human rights in the ongoing internal military operations in the South East just as it reminded the military hierarchy of the doctrine of compact making it necessary for military violators of human rights of civilians to face either military trial or prosecutions in the regular courts.

“We condemn the invasion by the armed security forces of the premises of the Nigerian union of Journalists in Umuahia whereby many reporters were attacked and their media facilities destroyed. We condemn the indiscriminate shooting of civilians protesting the military deployment and we completely condemn the attempt to illegally subject Nnamdi Kanu to house arrest.”

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