Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, says the Federal Government displayed injustice by releasing 1,009 Boko Haram fighters, while the embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu is in detention.
This was declared by National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the group’s Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, in a statement on Thursday titled, ‘Release Of Boko Haram Suspects Is An Impeachable Offence: – HURIWA Tells President Buhari’.
The group’s reaction followed reports earlier Thursday that the Nigerian military on Wednesday released 1,009 ex-Boko Haram insurgents, who had been in military custody at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
The reports said the former terrorists were later handed over to the Borno State Government at a secret ceremony that was initially billed to take place at an earlier date but was suspended indefinitely by the military authorities in the wake of the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff.
“The trending report of the freeing and resettlement of hundreds of Boko Haram terrorists on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari is not just an unpardonable ethical crime but amounts to an impeachable offence by the President because it undermines the basis of the rule of law,” the group said.
“Besides, HURIWA has asked President Buhari to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and all the detained members of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra because in the thinking of the group, if the government can undermine the constitution to free hardened terrorists, why is the government detaining members of a self-determination group that denies government accusations of its involvement in the killing of security operatives in South-East Nigeria?”
HURIWA called on the National Assembly to “wake up from slumber and defend the Constitution by compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to stop breaking the law by releasing terrorists and move to impeach him should he refuse to rescind the unconstitutional conduct”.
