Prominent pro-democracy advocacy group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the failure of the federal government and the relevant security agencies for the serial, persistent and provocative failures to arrest, prosecute and sanction harshly, the spobsors and suspected terrorists that invaded different communities one year ago during the year 2023 Christmas Eve and launched a wave of attacks that killed over 200 Christians in Plateau state.
“The continuous failure and blatant refusal of the federal government and the security forces to produce the terrorists responsible for the carnage that swept across many communities in Plateau state over one year ago, could be interpreted to mean that the current Federal administration is comfortable tolerating callous impunity and lawlessness of the accused armed Fulani terrorists that invaded many communities in Plateau state leaving in their wake, deaths, destructions and devastating violence just as the Rights group said the conspiratorial silence of even the Plateau state administration regarding the need for effective closure for the victims and survivors of such heinous crimes against humanity for more than a year is unfortunate and unpardonable. “We challenges the Plateau state government to publish a White Paper on these brazen attacks that took place over a year ago and ensure that the sponsors and the mass killers are identified and dealt with in accordance with the laws. Sweeping these wave of killings under the carpets of impunity is absolutely despicable, intolerable and heartbreaking.”
“How can we the elders of today and leaders of today tell our children and their children’s children, that some bunch of primitive and depraved souls wielding sophisticated weapons of mass destruction, invaded sleepy communities in Plateau state and killed over 200 human beings and for one year, all that Nigerians and the World have gotten from the federal government of Nigeria is conspiratorial silence even as these daredevil terrorists and mass murderers have been let off the hooks”.
“The government of Plateau State bears the primary responsibility of ensuring that justice is not only done to the victims of these cruel killings in Plateau state on Christmas eve of the year 2023 but JUSTICE MUST BE SEEN TO HAVE BEEN DONE. We are asking the Plateau state government to tell the World the efforts been made to arrest the sponsors and the mass killers that unleashed venomous violence on a massive scale about the most solemn of periods being the Christmas Eve of the year 2023”.
“We in the civil rights community have constantly asked the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria to sanction the heads of security services in Plateau state who went to sleep on that fateful day even as these terrorists invaded many communities and left trails of blood, violence, destruction of lives and property of the good people of Plateau state.
“Plateau state and the federal government must be held to account for these killings until the killers are produced and punished sternly in accordance with the extant laws of Nigeria and Plateau State. We wouldn’t rest until the killers and those who let these crimes happen are prosecuted and punished. We will be updating the International Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands about the systematic failure of justice administration in this incident and then appeal to the ICC to intervene and take over the jurisdictions over the matter since Nigerian government has remained silent and inactive.
HURIWA recalled that on December 28, 2023, the Nigerian office of Amnesty
Nigeria published detailed report of the attack which it titled: “Security lapses that enabled Plateau Attack must be investigated”
Amnesty International it would be recalled, had stated as follows: “With the death toll from the Christmas Eve attacks in central Nigeria surpassing 190, the Nigerian authorities must investigate the inexcusable security lapses that allowed the horrific attacks by gunmen across over 20 villages of Bokkos and parts of Barkin-Ladi local government area of Plateau state.
Our investigation reveals that the gunmen were on a rampage of killing and destruction for more than 48 hours. They moved from one village to another. Apart from Bokkos local government area where the attacks started and lasted hours, the gunmen also crossed into Barkin Ladi local government area and killed dozens of people in Hurum, Daruwat, Maiyanga and NTV villages.
President Bola Tinubu must set up an impartial, independent, and effective panel to investigate the apparent failure of security agencies to halt the bloodshed hours after villages that were attacked were gathering dead bodies of those killed and conveying those injured to hospitals,”
Isa Sanusi, Director Amnesty International Nigeria, says in a statement.
“Patterns of recent deadly attacks on the rural areas of Plateau state, clearly show, the Nigerian authorities have left these communities at the mercy of rampaging gunmen. Nigerian authorities’ failure to tame the tide of this violence is costing people’s lives and livelihoods, and without immediate action, many more lives may be lost,” said Isa Sanusi
While President Bola Tinubu promised to implement new measures to address the rising insecurity in the country, the attacks in Plateau state and recently in parts of Benue, Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina state highlight that safeguarding lives and property is not a top priority for the government. Issuing statements condemning the attacks is not enough and genuine commitment to protecting the people must be demonstrated by ensuring justice.
Isa Sanusi remarked, ‘The bold failure of authorities to protect the people of Nigeria is gradually becoming the norm. President Bola Tinubu promised to enact security measures in response to these attacks, but so far, these promises have proven to be empty.
The Nigerian authorities are obliged under international human rights law, regional human rights treaties, and Nigeria’s own constitution to protect the human rights of all people without discrimination — and that includes the right to life.
Amnesty International is calling on Nigerian authorities to independently investigate all the Plateau attacks and ensure accountability by bringing the perpetrators to justice. The spate of these killings is evidence of the failure of authorities to protect the people. The inability of authorities to bring attackers to justice is fuelling impunity.”
HURIWA through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko is thereby calling on the federal government to ensure that justice is delivered to the victims and survivors of the massacre that happened over a year ago in Plateau state and also put proactive security measures in place to prevent such man-made calamity from ever happening in Plateau state or elsewhere in Nigeria.
*Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). January 6th 2025.
