Amnesty International’s Report Capable of Inciting Sectarian Crisis, Warns Group

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Centre for Social Justice Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has condemned the recent report of Amnesty International (AI) on the Army, Shiite clash, saying it was capable of causing sectarian crisis in the country.

The group expressed displeasure over the report through its Executive Secretary, Ikpa Isaac while addressing journalists yesterday in Abuja, where it described it as a despicable attempt to destabilise the country by undermining critical institutions.

According to him, “Amnesty International’s report titled, “Unearthing the Truth: Unlawful Killings and Mass Cover-Up in Zaria is another futile attempt to divert attention from the many atrocities of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) which Amnesty International has fruitlessly attempted to defend in the past.

“Despite its criminal intent, one must acknowledge that Amnesty International unwittingly mentioned a fact here. The people holed up with the extremists inside the compound got repeated entreaties from the Army to come out but they refused. This speaks volumes; it depicts the mentality of those who have been brainwashed to the point of hearkening to their manipulators while disregarding state institutions.

“Note that the compound has its own medical facility, which AI played smart to describe as makeshift. Why should an individual have a medical facility and a “mortuary”? What else lies inside that compound: a guards’ station, detention cell, an armoury? The self-contained nature of this compound should raise questions for the discerning mind since this is a sect that has disavowed the Nigerian state and runs a parallel government with cells scattered nationwide.”

The Executive Secretary stressed that the report was a deliberate and concerted effort by Amnesty International to portray Nigeria in bad light, adding that anyone that had been following public discourse on the Zaria incident would see that some lines in the report were taken straight out of the articles that IMN sympathisers had written to hijack the narrative of what the real problem was.

He opined that Nigerians must all unite to demand that Amnesty International’s intrusion in Nigeria’s affairs stop forthwith.

The group however called for the probe of the Country director of Amnesty International, Mohammed .K. Ibrahim, the Kano State- born, but Zaria educated erstwhile career diplomat who was an official of the (OIC) Organisation of Islamic Conference and a diplomat in Libya to determine if he had affiliations to Islamic fundamentalism.

Isaac also questioned the roles that Al played in destabilising Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and a host of other nations, noting that the AI used this same strategy of masquerading as human rights NGO to highlight sectarian, ethnic and other differences that the people were originally unaware of to an extent of sparking crises that consumed these countries.

“It is repeating this tired strategy of pitching Shia against Sunni and people of other faiths without bothering to place the disclaimer that IMN is an aberration that is working for foreign influence to terrorise Nigeria. We do not expect AI to make such disclosure since it fits snuggly into its agenda.

“Amnesty International might have proven itself to be a carrion bird and its officials buzzards and vultures that thrive only when there are deaths but Nigerians must rise up as one to reject these war mongers pretending to be saints.

“We will not allow Amnesty International to make Nigeria its latest stop for the deaths it successfully plied in Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the former Yugoslavia, where it persistently called for humanitarian intervention that has now been proven to be the code word for invasions,” it stated.