HURIWA writes foreign embassies over Buratai, others

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Friday asked foreign embassies in Nigeria to discountenance allegations of human rights violations made against the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai by a group known as the Eastern Rights and Intelligentsia Coalition.

HURIWA informed the foreign embassies in Nigeria that General Buratai as well as other immediate past Service Chiefs recently named as envoys by President Muhammadu Buhari, are reputable Nigerian statesmen with unblemished records of professional services rendered to Nigeria and have no case in any local or international judicial fora.

The letters to the 31 foreign embassies in Nigeria by HURIWA and AFRIRIGHTS were sent against the backdrop of earlier letters to same embassies by the Eastern Rights and intelligentsia coalition in which they reportedly canvassed the prosecution of the former Service Chiefs at the international criminal court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands for crimes against humanity and human rights breaches.

A statement jointly signed by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, stated that rather than recrimination and casting undue aspersions in a bid to ridicule the public standing and assassinate the character of Buratai and other former military chiefs, they deserve accolades and National awards for their undiluted services to Nigeria.

The names of the petitioned 31 key foreign missions are the Head of Delegation of EU and the Ambassadors of Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Sweden.

Others are the High Commissioners of the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada and the Ambassadors of the United States, Israel, Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria.