Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate alleged cases of torture and extra-legal executions in detention facilities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other prisons.
Besides, the rights group cautioned government to take proactive security and intelligence steps to secure lives of those currently being tried for alleged membership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), especially Nnamdi Kanu.
The group described them as political prisoners.
In a statement by its National Co-ordinator, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the group said it would send a detailed letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council on the need to probe incidences of alleged deaths and killings in EFCC cells in Lagos and Abuja and also look into the spate of alleged jail-breaks in Nigerian prisons resulting in death of several prisoners.
Meanwhile, the IPOB has called on the international community to provide medical experts to examine the health condition of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, following the alleged teargas thrown into his cell by prison officials last week.
According to the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, the teargas shot into Kanu’s room was allegedly poisoned to systematically cause his death.
In another development, the Summit Club of Asaba, a non-governmental organisation, has disassociated the people of the Delta State capital area from the call for the establishment of a Sovereign State of Biafra.
In a statement by its president, Prof. Fidelis Njokanma, and national secretary, Chinedu Onyia, an engineer, the group said that it has become necessary to make their position known on the impression being created by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and IPOB that Asaba is part of the agitation.
The group observed that Asaba (Ahaba) was never consulted on the issue of the agitation for Biafra, stressing that they never expressed any desire to be part of the call for secession from Nigeria.
It stated that it would reject any attempt to make Ahaba a battleground, warning that its people are prepared to defend their inalienable right to freedom of association.
The body, therefore, urged the Delta government to take advantage of security reports and apparatuses to preempt any incursion by agitators in the future.
