Prefering to lay the blame squarely on intelligence and security failures by security operatives for the recent dastardly killings of ten female polio vaccinators in Kano State North West Nigeria by suspected armed Islamic terrorists, a media focused Non-Governmental Organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has criticized the Nigeria Police Force for charging to court two Journalists based in Kano for the unfortunate incident.
Yakubu Musa Fagge, presenter for private broadcaster WAZOBIA FM and Mr. Mubarak Muhammad Sani, a reporter with the same station in Kano State were charged by the Nigeria Police Force for criminal conspiracy, abetment, defamation of character, obstruction of public officer carrying out his duty, intentional insult and incitementto violence leading to the killing of the ten female health worker who had embarked on vaccination of Kano Children from wild Polio.
Reacting to this developemnt, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] which completely condemns the dastardly criminal killings of the ten female health workers in Kano by armed terrorists however blamed the security operatives for falling short of the expected constitutional roles to maintain law and order and to prevent crimes such as the horrendous mass killings of innocent health workers from happening in the first instance just as the Rights Group charged the Nigeria Police Force, the State Security Service [SSS] and the Nigeria Military including the Special Joint Military Task Force to rid Northern Nigerians of freelance armed non-state actors who are currently unleashing a wave of bloody violence.
In a statement to the media jointly issued by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA further tasked President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that state commissioners of Police and the state Directors of State Security Service [SSS] who fail to contain the spate of organized crimes in their areas of jurisdiction are sanctioned administratively for dereliction of duty and be fired should they consistently fail to check the unprecedented rise of violent crimes in their domains.
HURIWA stated thus; “We completely condemn the transfer of aggression by the police to innocent journalists in Kano for the gruesome murder by armed terrorists of ten female health workers in Kano state and we hereby demand that these nebulous charges slammed on these media workers be dropped forthwith even as the Police and other law enforcement agencies owe Nigerians the supreme constitutional duty to fish out the mass killers unleashing bloody violence in Kano state and other parts of Northern Nigeria so that they can be competently and professionally charged to court by the offices of the Federal Attorney General and those of the state attorney’s general for crimes against humanity.
We also demand that the Nigerian Government should immortalize these innocent female health workers whose precious lives were wasted by bloody terrorists in Kano state while they were performing heroic roles to wipe out the grave health challenge posed to Kano children by wild Polio virus.”
HURIWA dismissed the charges against the two journalists as ‘unserious’ and ‘illogical’ and stated that media workers who deviate from the time -tested and time honoured professional ethics governing broadcasting ought to be sanctioned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission [NBC]/Nigerian Press Council and the Nigerian Union of Journalists [NUJ] just as the Rights Group warned Government not to hide under the guise of fighting the menace of terrorism that have led to the killings of several thousands of innocent citizens to abridge press freedoms which are constitutionally safeguarded and protected.
HURIWA also charged all Nigerian media workers to be socially responsible in carrying out their functions especially at these trying times of our national life.