The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, to immediately activate pragmatic mechanisms to stamp out dehumanising treatments being meted out to travellers in the South East region by operatives of security services manning roadblocks.
In statement made available to Blueprint in Abuja, Sunday, signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, he lamented challenges confronted by travellers within the South East.
He said that, for over five years now, passengers within the South East travelling through military roadblocks are subjected to such degrading, dehumanising and disgusting treatment like forcing them to disembark from the vehicles and to raise their hands like slaves about to be sold into slavery.
The group said the security operatives will not even bother to conduct searches on the vehicles, but simply derive joy in allowing passengers to go through embarrassing and disturbing ordeals.
The group said these mistreatment and dehumanising conditionality imposed on travellers by the military operatives who run the roadblocks in the South East region, is absolutely unconstitutional and illegal.
The group said the human rights provisions in chapter four of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are binding on all authorities.
HURIWA further underscored the necessity of military operatives being made to observe the rules of engagement that will not go contrary to the universal human rights laws, including those provisions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, covenants on civil and political rights and the African human and peoples rights principles.
HURIWA disclosed that it was throwing its weight behind the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Abia State Council, that has recently expressed worry over the continuous humiliation of passengers at military checkpoints across South East geo-political zone.
NUJ in a communiqué after its monthly congress in Umuahia, strongly condemned the practice, and demanded its immediate stoppage, saying it is not a good public image for the military.
HURIWA said the CDS, as an officer that has shown inclination towards the adherence to the rule of law and respect for the human rights of the Nigerian citizens, must impress it on the other service chiefs, the Inspector General of Police and the DG of DSS that treating citizens of any section of the country like slaves, is totally unacceptable.
The group asked the Army to finetune its operational modalities in the South East, adopt law based, rights based and intelligence based strategic approaches in combating insecurity in the country.
Besides, HURIWA said section 42 (1) prohibits discrimination of citizens on the bases of their ethnic, religious or political affiliations just as it has tasked the CDS to treat this complaint with the highest attention that it deserves.
According to the rights group, segregating and treating Igbo travellers or other travellers within the South East like a conquered population is antithetical to the principles behind the setting up of the departments of civil and military affairs by the three tiers of the armed forces of Nigeria such as the Army, the Airforce and the Nigerian Navy.
HURIWA, however, expressed excitement at the decision of the Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Gwabin Musa, to appoint a Senior Advisor on Human Rights with a full fledged office.
The group stated that the decision could signpost a positive and constructive development which can only mean that the topmost serving military officer has the greatest inclination towards showing respect for the rule of law and respect for the human rights of the citizens and the members of the armed forces.
