Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has said that the arrest of Nollywood actor, Mr Chiwetalu Agu amounted to ethnic targeting the people of the Southeast and Igbo-speaking Nigerians.
The actor was first arrested by soldiers for wearing a cloth that had the color of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra in Onitsha. He was later arrested by the Department of State Service.
HURIWA made the declaration in a statement issued Saturday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and made available to the media.
The Army in a statement had said that the actor was arrested “while inciting members of the public and soliciting for support for the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra,” adding that the actor was “dressed in a very well-known attire of the proscribed group”.
However, in its statement titled, “Chiwetalu Agu: HURIWA accuses military, DSS of ethnic profiling’ the group said, “The military and the DSS have clearly shown their inclinations towards ethnic profiling because on more than one occasion the Kaduna-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi was seen holding nocturnal meetings with the terrorists who kidnapped many school children and held them, hostage, for months in the forests.”
It noted that despite the obvious evidence that the said Ahmad Gumi made many television and newspaper appearances and granted extensive interviews including the one that he accused the military of helping to weaponise terrorists in the North-West, there was never any attempt on the part of the DSS or Army to invite him or arrest him for these treasonous acts of fraternizing and colluding with terrorists.
“But the Igbo Actor Chiwetalu Agu wore just a cloth with the flag of the defunct Biafra Republic which is not unlawful but the Army tortured him and thereafter handed him over to the DSS and the DSS is now saying that justice would be done and we ask, which justice? This is pure ethnic profiling and vendetta which is unconstitutional.”
The statement added, “We demand the immediate release of Mr Chinwetalu Agu by the DSS or they charge him to court so the world will see how low the country Nigeria has degenerated in the practice of apartheid policies by the current administration that releases and reintegrate Boko Haram Islamic terrorists.”
