In an open letter to the president by SERAP’s senior legal adviser, Bamisope Adeyanju, the organisation said: “Opacity and deficiencies in the way arms purchases are decided and controlled, if not urgently addressed, would continue to expose our soldiers to risk of attacks and killings; displace people and destroy their means of livelihoods and render them homeless, thereby undermining human rights, including the right to life, right to personal security, right to education and right to livelihood.”
It also urged Buhari to “immediately refer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) pursuant to Article 13 of the Rome Statute, all allegations of corruption in the spending of funds meant to purchase arms to empower Nigerian soldiers to fight Boko Haram, including the apparent diversion and sharing of the over $2 billion under the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan and approved spending by your own government.”
President Buhari Mourns NLNG Poetry Prize Winner, Ikeogu Oke
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on its part, blamed the Federal Government and the army for sabotaging the war through the release of so-called repentant fighters. It questioned the wisdom in freeing terrorists when their other members are engaged in serious battles with the military.
“This government by this atrocious sabotage of our laws has made the country a laughing stock in the international community and has encouraged the continuous waging of war against the Nigerian state by armed non-state actors, since it would seem that some persons in top government and military positions are milking Nigeria dry from the humongous cash voted for national security.”
In a statement by National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko in Abuja yesterday, HURIWA said: “If there is anyone who should be tried for undermining national security, it should be the defence contractors and military chiefs who are diverting arms’ fund to their private pockets and buying substandard weapons for the troops, which is why so many of them are being killed by Boko Haram.”
Expressing “grief” and a “heavy heart” at the killing of the soldiers, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), John Gbor, at the weekend noted: “Early this year, about $1 billion was sought to buy ammunition to fight terrorism. What did we get since? Recently, trans-border terrorists killed no fewer than 70 soldiers plus a commander following an attack on 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele. Worse still, a large cache of arms and ammunition and military equipment were carted off.”
In a statement released in Ibadan by the Director of Strategic Communication, John Gbor Campaign Organisation, Comrade Mike Angel, the presidential hopeful criticised the Buhari government for allegedly turning the fight against terrorism into a “hotbed of corruption.” Sambisa Forest is now “a metaphor for a cash cow that needs to be castrated,” he added.
Similarly, the presidential candidates of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr Oby Ezekwesili, asked the government to be “more honest on the challenges it appears to be facing” in prosecuting the campaign against Boko Haram.
Making the disclosure in a statement yesterday, she said the Federal Government “must take measures to assess the failure of leadership of the service chiefs,” because “performance, accountability and consequence have been missing for far too long and must now change.”
Source: Guardian Newspaper
