HURIWA displays hanger over FG’s employment of Asari Dokubo’s men to protect Abuja-Kaduna road

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a civil rights advocacy group, said on Sunday that it is sad that the Federal Government hired mercenaries to guard the notorious Abuja-Kaduna expressway who were purportedly working for the head of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo.

HURIWA claimed in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, that the government, particularly the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force, had failed to uphold their constitutionally mandated main duty of protecting the people.

The group also demanded that President Bola Tinubu immediately remove all service chiefs and heads of security agencies, claiming that they are unfit for office in light of the use of non-state actors to carry out their constitutional duties of defending Nigerians and other national assets against aggression from both within and without the country.

“HURIWA’s appeal for action comes days after Dokubo informed reporters at the State House on Friday after meeting with President Tinubu that his troops are the ones ‘engaged by Nigerian government’ and not the Nigerian Army as we are made to believe’ when it comes to securing the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.

I am a participant in this fight, the former militant was reported by the right wing as saying. In Plateau, Niger, Anambra, Imo, Abia, and Rivers, I support the Nigerian state administration. And right now, you’re taking this road from Abuja to Kaduna. You cannot travel to Abuja, Kaduna, or vice versa without the assistance of the army. It is my men, who are stationed in Niger and are working for the Nigerian state administration.

“Today, you journey to Baga, Shiroro, and Wase. We have lost a great number of soldiers, and in all of these battles, we have not even used 1% of the weapons that the Nigerian military has deployed. We succeeded by a landslide with just 1%.

In Katari, Kaduna State, on March 28, 2022, a train traveling from Abuja to Kaduna was assaulted. Scores of people were killed, hundreds were abducted, and millions of naira were exchanged before the marauders released their prisoners more than six months later.

It was previously revealed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for pipeline surveillance and protection to a private company, Tantita Security Services, which is run by a former militant commander known as Tompolo.

According to HURIWA’s Onwubiko, the Federal Government owes it to Nigerians to provide the details of the quasi-military contracts awarded to Asari Dokubo, which he claims to be carrying out in various regions of the nation.

“On what legal basis does Asari Dakubo perform those mercenary tasks, and why does the government employ private mercenaries but refuse to publicly provide gun licenses to Amotekun, Ebube Agu, Benue Guards, and other Nigerians interested in acquiring such weapons to defend themselves?

According to Asari Dakubo, what distinguishes these mercenaries from the ‘unknown gunmen’ in the South-East, and is it the Federal Government that has sent private mercenaries to the South-East and other regions of the Federation?

Second, we request that the next President fire all the service chiefs and leaders of security organizations so that the new administration may start a thorough purge of terrorists, kidnappers, and lone gunmen still active throughout Nigeria.