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Tag: amnesty

  • Govt, Amnesty disagree over rights abuses

    Govt, Amnesty disagree over rights abuses

    Government yesterday rejected the report by global rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI), which accused it of engaging in grave human rights violations in dealing with the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Olugbenga Ashiru and Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar, queried the mode of the survey conducted by the group.

    In the report entitled: “Nigeria: Trapped in the cycle of violence”, the group claimed that the atrocities carried out by Boko Haram were worsened by the response of security forces, which violated the rights of some Nigerians.

    The report was presented in Abuja by AI’s Secretary-General, Salil Shetty.

    Stressing that grave human rights violations have been committed by Boko Haram including murder, burning down of schools and churches and attacks on media houses and journalists, it noted that security operations targeting Boko Haram have been conducted with little regard for the rule of law or human rights.

    He said hundreds of people accused of having links to Boko Haram have been arbitrarily detained by a combination of the Joint Task Force- a combined forces group commissioned by the President to restore law and order in areas affected by Boko Haram-the

    State Security Service and the Police.

    The AI kicked against lengthy detentions without charge or trial, without proper notification of family members, without being brought before any judicial authority, and without access to lawyers or the outside world, said: “A significant number have been extra-judicially executed.”

    Shetty said: “The cycle of attack and counter-attack has been marked by unlawful violence on both sides, with devastating consequences for human rights of those trapped in the middle.

    “People are living in a climate of fear and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Boko Haram and facing human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them.” He stated

    “Every injustice carried out in the name of security only fuels more terrorism, creating a vicious circle of murder and destruction.” He added

    The Amnesty report includes claims of killings, house burnings and rapes carried out by security forces, allegations that have trailed the government’s response to Boko Haram for months. Amnesty estimates that more than 200 suspected Boko Haram members are being held at a barracks in Maiduguri, while more than 100 others are being held at a police station in Abuja. Dozens of others probably are being held at the headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria’s secret police, and others elsewhere, Amnesty said.

    Ashiru told the AI delegation led by Shetty at his office that to tackle terrorism, the Federal Government has adopted a multiple-track approach, anchored on robust law enforcement, military strategy, indirect dialogue, including constructive engagement with religious leaders as well as the implementation of the Transformation Agenda particularly aimed at poverty reduction and job creation.

    “The minister while faulting AI for not engaging  the ministry before the publication of its  report, stoutly denied allegations of mass extra-judicial killings , arguing that the security forces have been very restrained in their response to the complex challenge posed by the insurgents, many of who remained faceless and brutal in their tactics.

    “He recalled that members of Nigeria’s security forces had fallen victims to the Boko Haram sect in the course of carrying out their lawful duties and urged AI to be more circumspect, nuanced and balanced in their assessment of the situation in the country.

    “He called on AI to demonstrate greater objectivity and openness in it’s reports on Nigeria and expressed the hope that these observations would be adequately reflected in it’s next report.

    Abubakar in a statement by Deputy Force spokesman Frank Mba yesterday expressed concerns over research methodology adopted by Amnesty International in compiling its report.

    “The fact that most of the sources of the content of the report are not named and thus not open to confirmation or reconciliation puts the authenticity, credibility and legitimacy of the report to question.

    “ Consequently, the police authority has begun a comprehensive and critical study of the report with a view to establishing its veracity and relevance vis-à-vis our contemporary security challenges and needs.

    “As a responsible law enforcement agency, the Nigeria Police Force takes all criticisms against its organisation seriously, bearing in mind that the Force has no monopoly of knowledge.

    “The Police High Command, on the strength of the Report, will not hesitate to accept honest and factual recommendations (if any) contained therein and initiate appropriate reforms where necessary”, the statement added.

  • JTF making Boko Haram insurgency worse – Amnesty

    JTF making Boko Haram insurgency worse – Amnesty

    Human rights abuses committed by Nigeria’s security forces in their fight against Islamist sect Boko Haram are fuelling the very insurgency they are meant to quell, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

    Boko Haram said it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks targeting security forces, politicians and civilians since launching an uprising in 2009.

    Reuters says the sect has become the No. 1 security threat to Nigeria.

    The Amnesty report said the Joint Task Force acted outside the rule of law and their brutal tactics could build support for Boko Haram outside its extremist core.

    A Nigerian military spokesman contacted by Reuters rejected the report as “biased and mischievous.”

    “The cycle of attack and counter-attack has been marked by unlawful violence on both sides, with devastating consequences for the human rights of those trapped in the middle,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

    “Every injustice carried out in the name of security only fuels more terrorism, creating a vicious circle of murder and destruction.”

    The report is likely to add to calls for Nigeria’s military to change its heavy-handed approach to tackling the insurgency, which critics have long said is driving desperate youths into the arms of Boko Haram.

    It details cases of abuses stretching back to the start of the Boko Haram uprising in 2009.

    The report said a “significant number” of people accused of links with Boko Haram had been executed after arrest without due process, while hundreds were detained without charge or trial and many of those arrested disappeared or were later found dead.

    “People are living in a climate of fear and insecurity, vulnerable to attack from Boko Haram and facing human rights violations at the hands of the very state security forces which should be protecting them,” Shetty said.

    Amnesty said it had spoken to witnesses who described seeing people who were unarmed and lying down with their hands over their heads shot at close range by soldiers.

    In one case, a widow described how soldiers put a gun against her husband’s head three times and told him to say his last prayers before shooting him dead. They then burnt down their home. She now fends for her seven children alone.

    Defense spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerima said that Nigerian forces only kill Boko Haram suspects during gunfights, never in executions.

     

  • Amnesty urges Edo to stop execution of prisoners

    Amnesty urges Edo to stop execution of prisoners

    Amnesty International on Monday appealed to the Edo State government to stop the execution of two condemned prisoners in the state.
    The inmates could be executed as early as Tuesday, sources told Amnesty International, prompting the organisation to call for their appeals to be respected and preparations of the gallows to be halted.
    The news came three weeks after the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, signed their death warrants.
    According to information received by Amnesty International, neither the convicted prisoners nor their families have been informed of the planned date of execution.
    “The Nigerian authorities must immediately halt any plans to execute the two prisoners on death row in Benin City prison,” said Lucy Freeman, Amnesty International’s Deputy Programme Director for Africa.
    “The inmates are party to an ongoing appeal and the judicial process must be respected.
    “To go ahead with any execution of prisoners when their death sentence is still being challenged in the courts is a flagrant violation of human rights.
    “Refusing to provide convicted persons and family members advance notice of the date and time of execution is a clear violation of human rights. It is cruel, inhuman and degrading,” Freeman added.
    Prison wardens at Benin City prison were seen preparing gallows for the executions between Sunday night and Monday morning.
    In a cruel twist, other inmates not on death row were made to wash the gallows this morning, Amnesty said.
    A Court of Appeal ruling is still pending after a further appeal was submitted by a Nigerian NGO, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project, in March 2010 on behalf of then 840 death row inmates, including the pair in Benin prison.
    An injunction was granted by the court upholding the appeal but it was lifted in April 2012.
    The judgment remains pending on a second appeal which was filed by the organisation the same month.
    Oshiomhole, according to Amnesty, signed the execution warrants after prison authorities informed him that the death row inmates in Benin City prison were “becoming unmanageable.”

  • Ex-militants threaten fresh violence over amnesty

    FORMER armed youths of Urhobo extraction in Delta State have threatened fresh round of violence in the Niger Delta region if they do not get “fair share” of the 3,642 slots recently approved for the 3rd phase of the Federal Government’s amnesty programme.

    The Acting Chairman of the Urhobo unit (ex-freedom fighters) in Delta State, Great Godwin Anuke, in a statement yesterday, said a rehash of the phases 1 and 2 of the programme, which saw the alleged marginalisation of his kinsmen, would not be tolerated.

    He advised the Special Adviser on Amnesty to the President, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, to ensure that there is justice to the Urhobo ethnic group to avert violence. He said it was unfair that the group, which is host to over 653 oil wells, is subjected to such treatment by the amnesty office.

    “Mr. President Goodluck Jonathan knows what we can do, if the amnesty programme refuses to put Urhobo youths that are in the 3rd phase into the programme. We will cause crisis in the region and bad things will happen,” he said in statement issued after a meeting of the Urhobo Youths, in Ughelli.

    Anukwe further stated that “Mr. Goodluck is not helping the youths of Urhobo. 500 youths were taken from the Itsekiri National Youth Council, 100 from the groups led by the Late John Togo and 200 slots from Lato group in the Bakassi Peninsula while others are from groups of 200 slot and 842 for oil communities and Urhobo, that has oil producing communities, are being neglected.”

    However, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, amnesty office spokesperson, allayed the fears of marginalisation raised by the Urhobo ethnic group, stressing that the amnesty programme is not based on ethnicity but on those who played one role or the other during the armed agitation.

    Alabrah, who was contacted on telephone, said there was no need for the group to make threats, stressing that there are 2,000 slots available for sundry groups that they could fit into “if they present their cases well and it is verified.”