A prominent non-governmental and pro-democracy organisation, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has faulted the warning issued by the movement for the sovereign state of Biafra (MASSOB) against the conferment of traditional title on Governor Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State by Eze Eberechi Dick in Aba, Abia State.

The Rights group, in a statement against the backdrop of the widely circulated warning by MASSOB, stated that it was wrong to frustrate a genuine inter-ethnic initiative that is capable of engendering national harmony, peace and stability of Nigeria. HURIWA said any genuine group that believes in egalitarianism and the sustainable development of the Igbo nation should not be seen constituting itself into an obstacle against social or economic ventures that will advance the common interest of the Igbo people.

HURIWA noted that although as a civil society body, it had protested the decision of the Kano State judicial authority not to prosecute the killers of the Imo State woman, Mrs Bridget Agbahime, in Kano over alleged blasphemy, but it nevertheless urged the pro-Igbo group to pursue justice for the late Kano-based trader through the due process of the law rather than overheating the polity.

“We have been in the forefront of genuine agitation for the murderers of this innocent 78-year-old woman to be effectively prosecuted for this dastardly act of primitivism and crass criminality. We have already sent letters to the Kano State government on the need to reopen the murder trial of these Islamic fundamentalists so as to deliver lasting closure to this woman and her family.”

HURIWA, however, insisted that in the last three years, the administration of the Kano State Governor has adopted fundamental and far-reaching measures to promote and protect the public interest of all the people doing businesses in Kano and the government has worked assiduously to protect the commercial investments of hundreds of thousands of Igbo residing in Kano. HURIWA praised governor Ganduje for putting inter-ethnic dialogues and harmony in the front burner of governmental affairs.

The group applauded the monarch of the autonomous community in Aba, Abia State, for deciding to honour the Kano State Governor with a well-deserved chieftaincy title, just as HURIWA stated that the event, if allowed to take place, is such that will much more robustly bring about broader understanding of two of the most largest ethnicities in Nigeria.

HURIWA said all hands must be on deck to promote only those issues and events that will rapidly promote a national consensus around the thematic areas of national integration just as the Rights group affirmed that the Traditional event in honour of the Kano state governor should and must be allowed to proceed because of the monumental social and commercial benefits it will yield in the lives of the good people of Abia State. The group further applauded the Abia state government for throwing its weight behind the event.

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