US Indicts FG On Rights Abuses, Corruption

The United States Government has indicted the Federal Government and security agencies of abuse of human rights, disregard for rule of law and exhibition of absolute impunity in a report titled, “2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Nigeria”, which also clearly indicated that there was glaring evidence that the security agencies intimidated voters, election observers, and INEC officials, particularly in the southern part of the country during the 2019 elections.
The report, signed by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, released last Wednesday but made public on Friday, is a 46-page document comprising seven sections (and dozens of sub-sections), and includes Respect for the Integrity of Persons; Respect for Civil Liberties; Freedom to participate in the Political Process.
Others are Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government; Governmental attitude regarding NGOs’ Investigation of Human Rights Abuses; Discrimination, Societal Abuses and Trafficking in Persons; Worker Rights.
The dossier, which compiled atrocities by the government and its agents, seemed to give more insight into why the President Donald Trump administration slammed repeated sanctions on Nigeria in the last one year.
It detailed accounts of President Muhammadu Buhari government and its agents’ arbitrary, unlawful, or extrajudicial killings.
The Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Military, the Department of State Services (DSS) and state organs were accused of using lethal force to disperse protesters, apprehend criminals and suspects.
Noting that authorities did not hold security agencies accountable for the use of deadly force, the report lamented that federal and states’ panels of inquiry reports are never made public.
It recalled that in 2017, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, while in acting capacity, convened a presidential investigative panel to review security agencies’ compliance with human rights obligations, rules of engagement, and submitted its findings in February, 2018.
“As of September (2019), no portions of the report had been made public”, the report noted.
On attack on Shiites, the report said that as of September, 2019, the Federal Government was silent on further investigating or holding individuals accountable for the 2015 killing and mass burial of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), and other civilians by the Army in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The US wondered why the report on the 2017 Air Force erroneous bombing of an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Rann, Borno State, which killed and injured more than 100 civilians, humanitarian workers and Nigerian Army personnel, has not been released.
On disappearances, the world power mentioned that the publisher of Bayelsa State-based tabloid the ‘Weekly Source’, Jones Abiri, was held for more than two years in incommunicado detention by the DSS without trial, access to counsel, or family visitation.
The US also referred to the arrest and harassment of Stephen Kefas, Agba Jalingo and the missing Abubakar Idris aka Dadiyata.
The blogger and critic of the federal and Kano State governments was abducted from his home in Kaduna State in August, 2019.
Nothing has been heard about him since and the DSS, the state agency notorious for secretly holding Nigerians, has denied taking Idris.
Some media outfits also reported the case of citizen, Abdullahi Ahmadu, who had been in DSS custody since 2013 without access to the court or family members before his situation leaked.
Another Nigerian, Anthony Okolie, was arrested and detained by the DSS for nearly three months for ownership of a phone number recycled after it became dormant.
Okolie legally purchased the line from MTN but was secretly kept because the number earlier belonged to Buhari’s daughter, Hanan. The matter is in court.
The United States expressed concern over Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on arrests and detention of journalists and activists, saying such indicated a growing intolerance of dissent.
The country reiterated concern about the security situation in Nigeria, the murder of innocent citizens, deadly communal/ethnic clashes, bandits’ attacks, among others.
It said abductions for ransom were still going on and observed that on May 1, 2019, armed assailants kidnapped the nephew of President Buhari and held him for more than two months before he was rescued.