The Northeast Security Advocacy Forum has warned Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association, HURIWA, against what they call, “introducing ethnic sentiments to the Association.” Their warning came about over his statement on the Imo bomb that was found, as reported in several of the Nigerian daily newspapers yesterday.
The Northeast Security Advocacy Forum has warned Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association, HURIWA, against what they call, “introducing ethnic sentiments to the Association.” Their warning came about over his statement on the Imo bomb that was found, as reported in several of the Nigerian daily newspapers yesterday.
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In a statement released by Mrs Stephennie Joshua, the coordinator of the Northeast Security Advocacy Forum, an NGO, she said her group's members were “surprised,” by Emmanuel Onwubiko’s statements. Shocking statements, she said, despite all the serial attacks and killing in parts of the Nigerian northeast region that has claimed over 10,000 lives, including the recent abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok.
She added, (''the) Human Rights Writers Association, under Onwubiko's watch, (have) kept mute, only to speak now that improvised explosive devices were found in Imo.
“Human rights activists are supposed to be detribalized, we have been working in the southeast, and other parts of Nigeria. Human rights activists are supposed to be patriotic. All the years that we have been suffering in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Taraba, (the) HURIWA kept a suspicious silence. (Many believed the) HURIWA was dead. Now that the bomb was found in Imo, Onwubiko came out to raise false accusations against one of our Governors in the Northeast, (a governor) that has been doing everything to address the problem. Is it because Onwubiko is from the southeast that HURIWA is now raised from the dead?” she said in an incredulous tone.
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“We take serious exception to unwarranted attacks on any of our Governors that are bearing the brunt of Boko Haram. HURIWA tried to draw a dubious analogy of what Governor Kashim Shettima, of Borno, (had) said last week, at a security conference our members attended in Kaduna. The Governor rightly said, that if we don't contain Boko Haram in the northeast, they would extend to other parts of the north, and after that, they may attack the south. This is a logical analogy. Afterall, even before Shettima spoke at that conference, the Army in Port Harcourt had last year arrested Boko Haram explosives in Rivers State. Police have done the same in Lagos last year and, someone was arrested trying to plant a bomb in Bayelsa. Are these places not part of the south? Wasn't it the security agencies that first raised the alarm before Shettima's analogy?” Stephennie Joshua went on to ask in her statement.
“Besides, the Governor's remark as he said in his keynote address,” Stephennie Joshua went on to say, “it has good basis because as he analyzed, Boko Haram was first restricted to Yobe State in 2002, in 2004 they attacked Bama, and Gwoza LGS in Borno. She went on to point out that, “in 2007 (the Boko Haram) attacked Panshekara, in Kano. In July of 2009 they attacked Bauchi, and Maiduguri. In 2012 they attacked Abuja, Niger, and Kogi States. In 2013, they attacked Kaduna, and now they are suspected to be in Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Zamfara States, under the guise of herdsmen. Governors like Suswan had said this before, so what is new with Shettima's well educating, and appreciated keynote at that conference?”
In perhaps the strongest part of the group statement, Stephennie Joshua, went on to ask, “it because he is an APC man, or because he is from the northeast, who are now regarded as second class Nigerians? Enough of this rubbish,” she said angrily.
“We expect (the) HURIWA to champion the rights of thousands of people being killed in the northeast, and those abducted, but not to be used by politicians merely to get at the APC. The whole aim of HURIWA's sponsored remark, is a calculated plot to link APC to that bomb. Why is the HURIWA not asking whether the bomb was planted in an APC State in the south, so as to continue to unpatriotic blackmail that insecurity is mostly in APC States? Onwubiko should please come out and join politics, if that is what he wants. He shouldn't disguise (his comments,) please," Stephennie Joshua said.
The Nigerian northeast region has been the most volatile in recent years, and has also been a stronghold of Boko Haram militants since 2009. It is also the area where not less than 12 000 people have been killed in sectarian violence, and where the Islamists insurgents have destroyed property damage running into the billions of naira.
It is not clear if the statements by Stephennie Joshua will cause a split in the Nigerian Human Rights movement overall. At press time, Emmanuel Onwubiko, has not offered a reply to the public allegations that he and his group are fostering regionalism and ethnic divisions.
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