The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned in very strong terms the Kaduna and Kano state governments for failing to stop the abduction of Christian girls and their forced conversion to Islam by some unscrupulous persons aided by some lawless security forces.

The rights group said it was “unconstitutional and absolutely unlawful for any citizen of Nigeria to be abducted criminally and compelled to change their religious orientations.”

HURIWA spoke against the backdrop of a report by the US based International Christian Concern (ICC) that seven young Christian girls in Kaduna and Kano were forcefully kidnapped and converted to Islam after been married off against their own volition.

“We are worried to read the report that no fewer than seven Christian women – one of them married – were earlier this year abducted in Kaduna, Kano and Katsina and married off to radical Muslim men and forcibly converted to Islam,” it said.

HURIWA recalled that the US-based watchdog credited the report to quoting the Hausa Christians Foundation (HACFO), claiming that the incidents took place between March 23 and April 30 this year.

It quoted HACFO as disclosing that “five girls were kidnapped in Kaduna State, one in Kano State, and the already married lady was taken from Katsina State even as ICC quoted HACFO as saying in its report: “We are saddened to report to you the battles we have been fighting even amidst the lockdown. The Hausa Christians Foundation (HACFO) has been working on the following tragic incidences of abduction and forceful Islamization, despite the fact that the lockdown has limited our efforts.”

In a media statement on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the rights group said the practice of forcing young girls into marriage and then compelled them to convert from their religion to Islam is a grave violation of the constitutionally protected freedoms of religion and conscience just as it also violate their fundamental freedoms to right to the dignity of their human person which are guaranteed in chapter four of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended).

HURIWA said the actions of those who perpetrated the illegality of kidnapping and converting seven young Christian girls in Kaduna and Kano, Katsina states and got them married off and converted to Islam is absolutely abhorrent to the dignity of their human person and amounted to a grave crime that must be death with in accordance with the provisions of the laws against abduction just as the rights group said the act of forcing young girls into marriages out of their own volition is an egregious unleashing of gender based violence which must be resisted and the perpetrators arrested, prosecuted and punished by the competent court of law.

HURIWA also warned the Katsina, Kano and Kaduna States governments to put an end to this barbaric practice of abducting and marrying off Christian girls to Islamic adherents and firing them to convert because it is a sinister attempt to foist a new identity on those people as against the tenets of the constitution.

The rights group said religion is such a strong bond that if broken illegally and members of a religion compelled to enlist into another religion out of their own volition, these actions could backfire and snowball into religious conflicts and conflagration.

HURIWA has also condemned the murderous attacks by armed terrorists Fulani herdsmen in Agwa community of Oguta in Imo state in which an elderly farmer was hacked to death by these attackers.

Citing an eyewitness account, the rights group noted that the suspected herdsmen headed straight to the community of the deceased even as residents scampered for safety as the suspected herdsmen unleashed mayhem and caused chaos forcing many residence to be displaced.

In the aftermath of the attack on the “peace loving community of Agwa”, a young man was reportedly seen with severe multiple matchet cut on his head.

HURIWA said: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the continuous rampage of the armed Fulani herdsmen around Imo state community of Agwa in Oguta and we strongly ask the citizens of Imo state, the religious and community leaders, the Ohanaeze and other stakeholders to take the grave threats posed by the marauding armed Fulani herdsmen serious and take concrete steps to protect the Southeast of Nigeria from ever becoming like parts of North West and North Central where armed Fulani herdsmen have unleashed massive scale of horrendous attacks with the Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari doing nothing apparently because the armed terrorists are of the same ethno-religious affiliations.

“The leaders of the Southeast must stand their ground and never allowed their compromised governors to deceive them into inaction which will spell room because the armed terrorists are hell bent on descending on the good people of the South East of Nigeria. These armed terrorists must be resisted by all means.”