HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, a development focused and democracy inclined Non-Governmental organization has condemned the continuous rise in organized crime especially violent abduction and kidnapping of some prominent Nigerians and the inability of all security agents in the country to tackle the ugly incidence just as it tasked the Federal Government to set up a joint military and police task force to be composed of some of the best trained operatives in intelligence gathering to implement far-reaching workable measures to check the trend of kidnapping across the country.
The group canvassed constitutional amendments by the National Assembly to include provisions for the creation of community police and other vigilante groups made up of persons of untainted characters to operate at the rural areas to assist the Federal police and other law enforcement agents with the duty of preventing the occurrence of organized crime and where necessary to arrest and hand over suspected criminals to the Nigeria police for prosecution in the court of competent jurisdiction.
HURIWA in a media release endorsed by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko also charged the newly appointed Inspector General of Police Ogbonna Onovo to introduce training programmes on intelligence gathering and anti-kidnapping law enforcement mechanisms for operatives of the Nigeria Police as an effective way of tackling the expanding problem of kidnapping in the country. The group called on the Federal Government to adequately fund the training and re-training of operatives of the Nigeria Police and to view poverty among the Nigerian youths as a grave threat to national security and introduce pragmatic and transparently implemented youth economic empowerment programmes and projects across the country.
The human rights group which specifically mentioned the unprecedented rise in poverty among the majority of the Nigerian youths coupled with unemployment, collapsing public educational system and the ostentatious lifestyles of elected and appointed public office holders across the country as being the factors responsible for the unprecedented rise in social crime, charged the Federal Government to demonstrate more practical commitment and determination to implement comprehensive measures to redress these social crises indicators.
The group specifically condemned the recent kidnapping of the popular actor and film maker Mr. Pete Edochie by some yet to be identified armed gangs at the Weekend and called on the abductors to free him unconditionally because of his immense entertainment value and tremendous contribution to the advancement of Africa’s cultural values.
The Nollywood star actor Pete Edochie was kidnapped at Afor-Nkpor in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State on Sunday August 16th 2009 on his way back from official engagement in Asaba, Delta State even as three people were allegedly shot dead by the armed gang because they attempted to foil the kidnap of the popular movie maker who has also used his immense talents to condemn the rise in poverty in Nigeria and also called for a better Nigerian society in more than one thousand films produced locally in which he acted as star performer. Anambra State commissioner of police Mr. Uzor Amakulor who confirmed the incident told journalist that the police operatives have recovered the actor’s sport utility vehicle from which he was abducted by the armed gang.
HURIWA stated that the growing incidence of kidnapping and other organized crimes that go undetected and uncontrolled by all the publicly funded security agents in the Country is an indictment of the current Federal administration of president Umaru Musa Yar’adua as being incapable of providing the constitutionally mandated duty of safeguarding the security of lives and property of citizens as enshrined in section 14[2][b] which states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary duty of Government and the fundamental rights provisions enshrined in chapter four of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Government, it said, must act fast before further deterioration of the state of Nigeria’s national security.
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