HURIWA gives Kano ultimatum to prosecute alleged killers of Igbo woman

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has given the Kano State government a 74-hour notice to re-open the prosecution of the five suspected killers of the 72-year-old Igbo woman, Mrs. Bridget Agbahime.

In a statement sent to The Guardian yesterday, HURIWA said if at the end of the ultimatum the state government failed to bring to justice the persons who slaughtered the woman, it would begin a global campaign to demand the arrest of Kano State government officials abroad for trial as perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

“Those who may be blacklisted internationally for failing to bring to trial the killers of this Igbo woman include the governor and other principal officers including the commissioner for justice of the state,” the group said.

HURIWA has also sent a similar letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and principal officers of the National Assembly and the European Union to ask that the Kano State government be compelled to quickly bring to trial these killers who were left off the hook.

The National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said: “Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended): specifies that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of the state government.”

HURIWA said further that the jurisdiction of magistrates is limited as no magistrate’s court can try murder cases. “Therefore, that judgment that was delivered in favour of the killers of Aghahime was actually null and void, because a magistrate’s court has no jurisdiction to try or sit on murder cases.”

HURIWA also concluded that the court could not have released the murder suspects without the connivance of the Kano State government and Attorney General of Kano State.

According to the group, “The magistrate and the government of Kano State were instrumental to the killing of an innocent woman who committed no crime against Islam.”