HURIWA flays arbitrary arrest, detention of Imo youths by police

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the reign of terror in the South East and urged the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) not to let itself unwittingly become the reason for the eventual turning of their motherland into a war zone.

In a statement made available to newsmen, yesterday, HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that only an insane child would put his father’s house on fire over certain grievances caused by external forces.

HURIWA was reacting to the confirmation by Imo police commissioner that his men arrested young men at the Naze Timber Market in Owerri, Imo capital, following the killing of two Airforce personnel by armed hoodlums near the market.

The group stated: “The unconstitutional and unorthodox style of policing being adopted by the men and officers of the Imo State police command, including the mass arrest of youths in any scene of the crime, is outrageous, reprehensible, despicable and intolerable.

“Can we, in all honesty, identify those destroying strategic assets built in the South East, which are there to serve the interest of the South East of Nigeria? Can we all work to end this insanity of killing police officers? Can we stop the destructions of government facilities which belong to the South East of Nigeria?”

HURIWA also condemned the indiscriminate shooting by the police and soldiers on the streets of major towns in the South East such as Orlu, Owerri, Umuahia and Aba without provocation.

It described the shootings as tantamount to the enforcement of the shoot-on-sight order President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration gave to the armed forces in the South-East because many Imo citizens had been killed by stray bullets from such rash shooting in broad daylight.

“It is even shocking that the killings of security operatives were carried out by those even the police commissioner described as hoodlums, whom he said usually meet to smoke Indian hemp at the market. It is against several provisions of the fundamental freedoms expressly provided for in Chapter Four of the Nigerian Constitution, which are binding and enforceable.”

“We, in HURIWA, are scandalised to read the Imo State Commissioner of Police personally confirming that he uses illegal methodology of indiscriminate arrests to carry out the enforcement of the law in Imo,” Onwubiko added.

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