TheCable

Nzuko Umunna, an Igbo think tank, says Nigeria’s security woes are caused by injustice and failure of governance.

Addressing reporters in Abuja on Monday, Sam Amadi, chairman of the group’s legal committee, said the insecurity in the country is compounded by the unfair treatment of some citizens.

He said that the south-east, once the “safest region in Nigeria” but has become “a site of organised criminality” following a spike in violence in the region.

“Nzuko Umuna recognizes that Nigeria has descended into a depth of insecurity partly because of the failure of governance across the country and particularly because of inequities and injustices of political leadership in Nigeria,” he said.

“We acknowledge that the perception of unfair and unequal treatment of citizens compounds the insecurity crisis.”

Amadi, who is a former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), also tackled Alkali Usman Baba, inspector-general of police (IGP), over his reported statement that police officers should do their jobs not minding allegations of human rights abuses.

“We consider this statement horrifying, frightening and unutterable in a democracy with entrenched constitutional rights to life and due process,” he said.

“We are more surprised that the head of the Nigerian police will make such an outrageous statement authorising state violence in a region that, for long, has been seething with anger at police brutality and extortion and a region whose youths have been extrajudicially killed by security agents in large numbers.

“Statements like those of the IGP further deepens the sense of victimization by the state and therefore escalates the crisis.”