We the Presidents General
(Community Leaders) of the 177 communities in Anambra State, under the auspices
of the Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) received with shock,
embarrassment and disdain the news that the Nigerian Prisons Service, a parastatal
of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs had transferred some detainees of
the dreaded violent terrorists of Boko Haram extraction from Borno State in the
North East Zone of Nigeria to Ekwulobia in Aguata Local government Area of
Anambra State.
It will be recalled that the people
of the Southern part of Nigeria, particularly the South Easterners, their
worship centres, business outlets and locations, social gatherings etc were the
first targets of this callous, vicious and violent organization that killed, maimed
and displaced our people from their various areas of livelihood in Northern
Nigeria.
We believe with every sense of responsibility
that transferring these violent religious bigots and fundamentalists who
consider Christians as infidels who do not adhere to their bizarre beliefs and
consequentially ought to be exterminated to Ekwulobia, was ill conceived, ill
considered, grossly insensitive, condemnable and therefore totally
unacceptable.
If otherwise why should the Federal
Government and the prisons authority relocate some of these dreaded Boko Haram
insurgents to Ekwulobia, Anambra State where:
1. In the
recent past its people living in Northern Nigeria were deliberately and
viciously attacked, and those who were lucky to be alive, were financially and
mentally traumatized and wrecked having been displaced from their area of
domicile and means of livelihood.
2. The
Ekwulobia prison is a minimum security prison located in the middle of a
densely populated community, surrounded by tertiary institutions, and therefore
grossly inadequate for such inmates of high security risks.
3. There is no
military presence in case of the recurrent emergency of prison-breaks
associated with the Boko Haram insurgents. This is in flagrant disregard of
prison conventions and best practices worldwide.
4. The courts
in Anambra State have no jurisdiction to try them for offences committed
outside the state since these Boko Haram detainees have not been tried and
convicted and should therefore be classified as awaiting trial.
5.
The lives of
the Boko Haram detainees could be at grave risks and endangered because of the
likelihood of reprisal or revenge attack by family members of the victims of Boko
Haram insurgents in the Northern part of Nigeria.
The continued presence of these
inmates in Ekwulobia prisons is a trauma too many for Ndi Igbo who have not
recovered from the physical and psychological trauma of the past and recent
past occasioned by gross maltreatment from some fellow Nigerians in different
parts of the country. It is incomprehensible that a minimum security prison
located in Ekwulobia, a densely populated community with no military presence
should be considered suitable for housing some of these dreaded Boko Haram
detainees.
We therefore urge the Federal
Government to rescind this decision and take immediate steps to relocate these
detainees outside Anambra State and indeed the entire South East.
Mr Peter Nwagu
National Secretary
Dr JAP Okolo
National President
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