Chibuike Nwabuko, Abuja
The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) has described as criminal the release of suspected killers of an Abuja-based female pastor, and has threatened to call for street protests as a result.
“The Abuja Police Commissioner acted in a very criminal manner to have authorised the release of suspects, who allegedly lynched a female Redeemed Christian Church Evangelist in Kubwa, Abuja in front of a Mosque last year July.
“The nebulous excuse that those suspects were released because there was no prima facie evidence linking them to that dastardly crime of gruesome murder of a female Abuja preacher is a serious indictment of the FCT police command as accomplices to that killing or that the FCT police command is already infiltrated by jihadists and their sympathisers,” it said in a statement.
According to the duo of the media were the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss. Zainab Yusuf, of the pro-democracy and non-governmental organisation, the rights group has, therefore, called on Nigerians to speak out in condemnation of this hirewires cover up being played out by the jihadists-infested FCT Command of the Nigeria Police.
HURIWA has, therefore, called for street protests before January ending in Abuja to demand immediate redress.
HURIWA recalled that the deaconess at the Divine Touch Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mrs. Eunice Elisha, was murdered by suspected Islamists, while she was reportedly preaching in front of a Mosque around the Pipeline Area of Kubwa, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja (FCTA) in early July of 2016.
The rights group also recalled that the lynched female evangelist, who was a mother of seven children, was cut severally in the neck, and stabbed severally in her stomach by suspected Islamists, who allegedly were displeased that she often preached whilst passing through their Mosque.
The police, at that time, said some arrests were made but failed to either name then or charge them to court just as the police secretly released all the suspects rounded up in connection with this dastardly crime with a wishy-washy explanation that the police couldn’t find any link between the suspects and the crime.
HURIWA, however, raised alarm of a sinister pattern whereby killers of southerners are simply set free just because majority of the police officers share ethno-religious affinities with majority of these Northern born hoodlums, who deliberately carried out this religious hate crime in the streets of the Nigerian capital city.
The group also alleged that the FCT police command has also failed to charge to competent court of law the mostly Hausa tricycle riders who murdered an Igbo trader in Apo district of Abuja last year over disagreement with transportation fare.
“Whilst we condemn this evil trend taking shape in the FCT police command we will take a number of measures, including calling on Nigerians of all affiliations to join us in a proposed street rally in Abuja sometimes this month, which date would be communicated via social media to present letters of protests to the National Assembly to demand action in both the short, medium and long term to get the police to behave professionally and fetch out the killers of this female evangelist for prosecution for crime against humanity.
“We will, by Monday, send strong worded letters to the Police Service Commission (PSC) to ask that the FCT Police commissioner is sacked for disloyalty to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” HURIWA said.