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updated 10:20 AM UTC, Dec 13, 2023

UK Lawmakers Flays Nigeria Over High-rate Of Insecurity, Loss Of Lives In Letter To Commonwealth

Unic Press UK: A group of UK lawmakers in a letter complained to the Commonwealth’s Ministerial Action Group (MAG) over the alarming insecurity and loss of lives in Nigeria, accusing the Nigerian government of being unable to protect the lives of the populace especially in the northern regions where the situation has been intense.

According to MSN, the letter is addressed to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Patricia Scotland, and signed by Baroness Cox, Jim Shannon, Baroness Kennedy, Fiona Bruce, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, and several others.

“The state’s failure to protect the citizens is a clear breach of its obligations under the Commonwealth Charter in respect of human rights. There is now an urgent need to ensure adequate protection and aid for those suffering the loss of family members and the destruction of their homes and livelihoods, and to end impunity by ensuring that complaints related to human rights violations are promptly, independently and impartially investigated, and those responsible are held to account after fair trials,” the lawmakers’ said.

In March 2018, Lieutenant General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, who served as Minister of Defence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June 1999 to March, 2003; and was the Chief of Army Staff from 1975 to 1979, complained about the terrible situation.

Speaking in 2018 at the ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of the Taraba State University, Jalingo, Danjuma, said:

“There is an attempt at ethnic cleansing in this state and of course in all the riverine states’ of Nigeria, we must resist it. We must stop it. Every one of us must rise up. The armed forces are not neutral… The ethnic cleansing must stop, in Taraba State must stop, in all the states of Nigeria, otherwise Somalia would be a child’s play. I ask every one of you to be alert and defend your country, defend your territory, defend your state. You have nowhere else to go. You have nowhere else to go. God bless our country” – Theophilus Danjuma: 24 March 2018.

In January, Amnesty International raised alarm over the Nigerian armed forces use of lethal force.

Similarly, in a statement in January, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) flayed the Nigerian government, saying that the pattern of attacks seemed to indicate “collusion of the Security Units with the Islamists militia operating under such names as Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, “unknown gunmen”, and “group of vandals”.

On 17th January, 2017, the Nigerian Air Force “accidentally”, in broad daylight, bombed a Christian IDP Camp and killed over 200 Christian refugees in Rann, Kala-Balge Local Government in Borno State. In December 2017, an Air Force spokes person confirmed that the Nigerian Air Force sent an Alpha Jet and an EC 135 attack Helicopter to fire “warning” shots at Islamist militia attacking Christians in Numan, Adamawa state, but not to kill them! The villagers were later to report that the Jet actually bombed the Christian villages resulting in the death of over 50 people, while, the Nigerian Air Force said it merely fired warning shots at the Islamist militia attacking the villagers. This is jihad as we cannot understand fired warning shots in the narrative of this attack” – Christian Association of Nigeria: 16 January 2018.

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