The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, for negotiating with armed kidnappers and bandits describing the action as an affront to the constitution of Nigeria and all relevant laws which obliges the government to legally punish felons and hoodlums.

HURIWA, in a position paper sent to the media and signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA affirmed that the emerging illegality of some northern states in entering into dialogues with mass murderers and kidnappers in the guise of seeking for peace can only achieve a peace of the graveyard and would amount to rewarding criminality.

The rights group said the conspiratorial silence of both President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, whilst these cocktails of illegality and mischief against the constitution go on is the greatest disservice to the constitutional democracy even as it charged the President and all stakeholders, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to speak out against the coup against the Nigerian Constitution which these nocturnal meetings with killers and kidnappers in Zamfara and Katsina represent.

HURIWA stated that “the culture of violence brings with it a class of cruel people who believe they are entitled to determine the value of other humans. This is a reality which dawns on a society with weak criminal justice system where crime is not only prevalent and under-reported and officially rarely documented but also seldom meted with sanctions. This state of affairs breeds a most vile, oppressive and daring criminal sets such as kidnappers and arm bandits.”

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