2023 Election: Don’t Kill Ballot Box Snatchers, HURIWA Warns

As millions of Nigerian voters step out tomorrow February 25th, 2023, operatives of the security forces, the Nigerian Army, Police, and Department of State Services have been cautioned not to commit extralegal execution of citizens including those in conflict with the law who are not direct threats to their lives.

Prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria, HURIWA, said it was concerned about trending videos on social media in which soldiers were threatening to kill snatchers of ballot boxes during the poll.

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HURIWA in a statement in Abuja by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it is unlawful, unconstitutional, and a crime against humanity for security forces to disregard their rules of engagements governing all internal security operations and go ahead in trigger-happy episodes of extrajudicial killings of Nigerians during elections.

HURIWA cited that Section 33(1) of the 1999 constitution makes the right to life sacrosanct and prohibits the unlawful execution of offenders absolutely unless authorized by the courts.

The group said: “On the threats by some lawless Soldiers to kill at will those political thugs who would snatch ballots boxes, we warn that illegal killings of Nigerians even those in conflict with the law and do not constitute mortal threats to the lives of the security agents, will be challenged before the International Criminal Court in the Hague Netherlands just as it warned Service Chiefs to ensure that their operatives comply absolutely with the clearly stated rules of engagement.

“It is important to remind the service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police to be wary of the possibility that they may be dragged to the International Criminal Court for any election-related unlawful killings and several other cases of unresolved unlawful killings by their rank and file during the multiple internal security operations taking place in Nigeria simultaneously.”