HURIWA urges S’East govs, others to stop security threats

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged all South-East governors, political, religious and civil rights leaders to convoke immediate security summit to work out strategies to nip the grave security threats in the bud.

It said the development could be a co-ordinated attempt by sinister forces to destabilise the stability and security of the South-East region.

HURIWA noted that the series of attacks targeting security architectures located in the South-East were no coincidence but products of well-crafted and thought-out extensive plots by haters of the South-East to create anarchy, chaos and doom.

In a statement signed, yesterday, in Abuja by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the rights group said the people of the South-East must not take for granted any attempt by enemies of the progress of Igboland to create disorder and instability.

“We are much more than convinced beyond the shadows of the doubt that certain forces, both centripetal and centrifugal dimensions, have hatched sinister plots to destroy the security and stability of the South-East region and to make the region become very ungovernable to such an extent that security forces might be deployed on possible counter-terror operations,” it said.

The rights group, therefore, implored the regional leaders of the South-East to dig deep into the sources of the spikes in the attacks targeted at central government’s security institutions like the police, military out-posts and correctional centres since the last couple of months.

It also reminded the leaders of several coded threats made in the past by some persons masquerading as Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association to cause security nightmares in the largely Igbo-speaking region following the popular rejection of open grazing of cattle by millions of the residents of the South-East, which compelled some of the legislative houses in the region to pass legislative bills banning open grazing.

HURIWA also said that should the South-East governors continue to undermine the security interest of the region, Igbo all over the world should pull resources together to inaugurate a body made up of trained private investigators recognised under the 2020 Police Act to unravel those behind the recent spate of attacks of public institutions in the South-East.

It stated that the Miyetti Allah had in 2019 announced that it was setting up armed vigilante in the South-East but the people kicked against the unpopular and toxic plot, which many viewed as sinister and destructive.

“There is the imperative need to ascertain if these attacks are forms of sabotage by that Miyetti Allah, which is unhappy that the South-East has collectively rejected open grazing of cows.

“With the increasing security incidents in the South-East of Nigeria, there is the urgent need for leaders of the South-East to initiate a transparent probe into this emerging scenario which is calculated to destabilise the Igbo-speaking states and set it up for occupation by security forces.”

It, therefore, asked the Igbo leaders worldwide to rally around and proffer a practicable solution to the emerging security challenges threatening to destabilise the Igbo-speaking geopolitical area of Nigeria.