‘You Lack Human Empathy’ – HURIWA Attacks President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Tuesday of lacking human empathy.

HURIWA stated that the President was not prepared to strictly adhere to the law regarding the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

The group stated this while reacting to Buhari’s nationwide broadcast where he ordered the total lockdown of Abuja, Lagos, and the Ogun States due to the outbreak of Coronavirus.

HURIWA in its reaction noted that the President’s nationwide broadcast lacked clarity, the group further stated that Buhari showed a lack of empathy by ordering the lockdown.

The Human right group in a statement through its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, lamented that Buhari handed over licence to security agencies to violate the human rights of Nigerians.

Onwubiko expressed concern that the ambiguities contained in the national Broadcast by Buhari have handed a “free licence to armed security forces to wantonly breach the fundamental human rights of Nigerians contained in chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended) including the freedom from arbitrary arrests and detentions, right to life, right to dignity of the human person and other basic freedoms recognised in all international human rights laws.”

According to HURIWA: “Federal government must never be allowed to abuse the human rights of Nigerians through arbitrary detention and illegal arrests of citizens on frivolous reasons of violating the so-called quarantine. There is the possibility and indeed it has started happening that armed security forces are already arresting and detaining Nigerians under flimsy excuses and these armed security forces are extorting Nigerians in the guise of granting them bail.”

“The national Broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari lacks clarity because according to the directive to totally close down the nation’s commercial and political capitals of Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory for two weeks without making provisions for how families can buy their daily groceries and essential perishable food products and without any form of arrangements on how the poorest of the poor can get the food aids shows that President Muhammadu Buhari lacks human empathy and is not ready to adhere strictly to the demands of the law to respect the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.”