Islamic group petitions US government over FG human rights violation

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Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as Shiites, have petitioned the United States (US) Government over alleged human rights violation of Nigerians by the Federal Government.

Besides, the Islamic group urged the US government to impose embargo on Nigeria importation of weapons to serve as a deterrent against its violation of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

Leader of the Free Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky campaign committee, Mallam Abdulrahaman Abubakar, the letter, dated August 17, cited the appalling human rights record of the Nigerian military as the reason for the “vehement objection to the proposed sale of weapons and military hardware to the government of Nigeria.”

IMN drew the attention of the US government to incessant refusal of the government to acknowledge excesses of the military in handling civilian matters, “but even tries to justify them,” citing the examples of the killings of 34 unarmed civilians in Zaria in 2014, including the children of Sheikh Zakzaky.

Abubakar argued: “The initial response of the government to this disregard for human lives was to say it was a military affair.”“There is usually no properly conducted inquiries, no prosecutions, no remorse and no public apologies after such acts by the military.

“The government captured the IMN leader and his wife after shooting them at pointblank range, treated them in the most humiliating and denigrating manner before hauling them into incommunicado detention without charges for twenty months.

“Even after a Nigerian High Court had ruled that the detention is unconstitutional and ordered their release, the government has continued to contemptuously defy the order.”

The Shiites, therefore, called for a complete arms embargo on the Nigerian military, travel bans and other embargoes for senior military and political leaders “until a genuine commitment to the principles of rule of law, justice, fair play and human rights can be demonstrated beyond rhetoric and half-hearted measures by the government.”