The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has harshly criticized the reported killing and torching of the homes of certain politically exposed people in Orlu, Imo State, by state police agents.
HURIWA urged security chiefs to be patriotic and to abandon their extreme loyalty and attachments to basic tribal or religious feelings, arguing that if the armed Fulani invaders are permitted and authorized to destroy Nigeria, there will be no country for these security chiefs to reign over.
HURIWA’s issued a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf,
The statement read: “The security services in any part of the country is not a law unto itself. Therefore the Imo State Police Command or the Nigerian Army domiciled in Imo State South East of Nigeria can not operate as if Nigeria is a banana Republic with no laws, rules or regulations in which case the armed security operatives could just wake up one morning and start burning down houses associated with certain classification of persons even if they are in conflict with the law without any binding judgment of the Competent courts of Law as clearly spelt out in Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” HURIWA said.
“We are by this media statement asking the Imo State House of Assembly and the Police Service Commission to wake up from institutional anomie and slumber and stop the constant attacks and killings of the citizens of Imo State by the operatives of the Imo State Police Command.
“The report that security agents operating in no fewer than 15 vehicles, including an Armoured Personnel Carrier, burnt down a hotel, a residential house and about 15 shops in Orlu, Imo State, on Sunday, is to put it mildly, a government funded terrorism against the good people of Imo State.
“The incidents which happened at Okporo and Obor communities carved out of Umutanze in the Orlu Local Government Area of the state are said to have led to the burning down of many houses linked to a particular politically exposed person.
“The report that the security agents, who came for the operation, supervised the burning of the hotel before they left shows that these were premeditated act of cowardice and Imo State government’s funded terrorism against citizens of the state most likely because of perceived political and ideological differences.