A Niger Delta based human rights group, the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights (ISSJHR) has rejected the calls by some Northern elders for amnesty for terrorists who kill, maim and kidnap innocent Nigerians for ransom, stressing that those linking their actions to Niger Delta militants are completely off track.
The Chancellor of ISSJHR, Dr. Omenazu Jackson, in a statement, said that the terrorists operate within and outside their region, while the Niger Delta militants focused solely on the Niger Delta region and didn’t embark on needless killings, noting that the position for amnesty for terrorists “is morally indefensible, legally untenable, and historically dishonest.”
Jackson said: “We wish to express grave concern and unequivocal condemnation over recent calls by some religious and community leaders in Northern Nigeria for the granting of amnesty to terrorists and bandits, including “Boko Haram, ISWAP” and allied armed factions under the false pretext of parity with Niger Delta environmental and economic rights agitation.
“For more than a decade, terrorist violence in Northern Nigeria resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths with millions displaced from their homes.
Entire communities have been wiped out. Thousands of houses have been razed. Churches, mosques, schools, and markets; spaces meant for worship, learning, and livelihood; have been deliberately targeted and destroyed.
“International and local human rights monitors, including UN-affiliated bodies, have documented mass killings of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly.
“Kidnapping of schoolchildren, most infamously young girls and boys abducted from classrooms; systematic sexual violence, including rape and forced marriages, as well as forced displacement, creating one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises.
“These crimes have triggered global outrage and international condemnation, placing Nigeria repeatedly before the United Nations Security Council, Human Rights Council, and international humanitarian agencies.”
He added: “Yet, disturbingly, many of the same voices now advocating amnesty remained silent while these atrocities were committed.
Silence in the face of mass murder, followed by calls for forgiveness without justice, constitutes a generational shame and a betrayal of the victims.
