Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has dragged the Nigerian Defence Headquarters over its failure to deploy the 12 newly acquired Super Tucano aircraft in the North-West, several months after they were acquired.
The group in a statement on Thursday, also slammed the military hierarchies especially the Nigerian Air Force, for its tardiness in dealing with bandits groups seven months after a Federal High Court designated them as terrorists.
National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, who signed the statement said while the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force are condoning the heinous killings of bandits, the marauders, now emboldened by the inaction of the government, have moved on to allegedly deploy sophisticated weapons including an attack helicopter.
According to reports, terrorists in helicopter attacked residents of Adara community in the southern part of Kaduna State on Sunday and killed over 30 persons.
The National President of Adara Development Association, Awemi Maisamari, said the carnage was carried out by Fulani terrorists who aside from shooting sporadically from the helicopter, were aided by assailants on ground who came on 150 motorcycles carrying three armed persons each.
“The death toll this morning (Wednesday) is 32, as villagers comb surrounding bushes for more bodies. Seven were found this morning decomposing,” he said, adding that an Evangelical Church Winning All, ECWA, in the area was destroyed.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said “It is ironic that the terrorists are now operating on air, shelling houses and killing innocent residents when the military who should decimate the terrorists bandits through Air raids have failed to bombard them for reason best known to them. Even the Kaduna State Governor indicted the military for failing to act on intelligence regarding the precise locations of these Fulani terrorists even when the military is monitoring their telephone conversations and now they are on the air. Who gave them the helicopters?”
“Earlier in February 2021, controversial Islamic cleric and bandit-sympathiser, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, disclosed that bandits operating in the northern states forests are planning to acquire anti-aircraft missiles to repeal attacks by the military. He said, ‘They (bandits) are now trying to buy missiles, anti-aircraft missiles. This is already developing into a full-blown insurgency… (read here: https://punchng.com/bandits-plan-to-acquire-anti-aircraft-missiles-gumi/)’.
“In March 2022, terrorists bombed a moving Abuja-Kaduna train and killed scores while others were kidnapped. On July 18 2021, bandits shot down a Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on the border between Zamfara and Katsina states.
“Yet, the military and the sleeping regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), have gone on full somnolence and failed to treat the mass killers of innocent citizens as they are supposed to be treated despite that they have killed thousands of innocent souls in Kaduna in the last one year.”
HURIWA recalled that a frustrated Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, in March after the train attack accused the military of knowing the location of the bandits wreaking havoc in the state but was refusing to bomb their hideouts.
“Before, they were categorised as bandits and if you bombed them, you would have issues with human rights organisations and international criminal courts and so on. But, now that they have been declared terrorists by the court, they can be legally killed without any consequences from international human rights organisations.
“We know where their camps are, we know where they are; the SSS have their phone numbers, they listen to them, and they give me the report. We know what they are planning. We shouldn’t be waiting for them to attack; why can’t we go after them?” El-Rufai had asked the military.
Commenting further, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “With the Owo genocide and the Adara mass killing, HURIWA calls on the Defence Headquarters to swiftly deploy the 12 Super Tucano fighter jets on the bandits terrorising the Nigerian state. The court has already declared them as terrorists and they fit into the United States categorization as those to suffer from the heat of the fighter jets. Then, why the delayed almost eight months after? Isn’t this complicit that the military doesn’t want to deal with the criminal and mindless terrorists as el-Rufai noted in his March outburst? Should all Nigerians be slain because the President is Fulani as the killer bandits? Enough!”
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