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BUHARI WAS A NOTORIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR- HURIWA ALLEGES
Even as politicians have continued to pour encomiums on the late elected president of Nigeria between 2015 to May 2023, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s administrations, the late politician has been described as one of Nigeria’s most notorious human rights violator whose government was so intolerant of opposing views so much so that peaceful protesters were slaughtered like chickens by security forces under the directive of Muhammadu Buhari himself.
Making the damning allegations is the prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which also stated that during the eight years reign of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, the entire North West became militarised by armed non-state actors made up essentially of terrorists sharing the same Ethnic orientation like the then president who made no transparent efforts to confront and dismantle the armed Fulani insurgents who made the North West a no-go area and even carried out deadly attacks in the federal capital territory including the invasion of the prison facility in Kuje Abuja in which over a thousand hardened terrorists detained in that facility disappeared and have not been re-arrested till today. The Rights group blamed the late President Buhari for the bombing of the Catholic church in Owo, Ondo state in which over 40 worshippers were killed, even as hundreds of Churches across the North were bombed and many Christians and Pastors were killed or kidnapped.
Buhari according to HURIWA, would be remembered as the then opposition leader who came to power in the year 2015 with a groundswell of promises to respect the rule of law, promote the human rights of citizens but Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which ended on May 29 2023 after eight years, was characterised by blatant disobedience of a number of court orders, waged unrelenting clamp down on innocent Nigerian youths, and undertook severe attacks on the press freedom.
HURIWA recalled that in his inaugural address for his first four-year term on May 29, 2015, he said “the federal executive under my watch will not seek to encroach on the duties and functions of the legislative and judicial arms of government. The law-enforcing authorities will be charged to operate within the Constitution.”
Besides, in many public statements, the then President pledged that his government would implement transparaent measures to guarantee press freedom and to upholding the rule of law but the Buhari’s administration was a notorious violator of human rights of the citizens and he deployed the security services to harass the then leadership of the National Assembly. He was re-elected on Feb. 23, 2019 and after receiving a certificate of return, the then President Buhari restated his government’s decision to work in compliance with the constitution when he said thus: “the hard work to deliver a better Nigeria continues, building on the foundations of peace, rule of law and opportunities for all.”
HURIWA however carpeted the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari for entering the evil book as the most brutal human rights violator who used security agencies to kill off perceived opponents who dared to stage peaceful protests including the Zaria based Shiite Islamic sect whose membered were mauled down to their gruesome deaths by soldiers and police operatives using the presidential orders handed to them by the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
“If the history of human rights in Nigeria is to be written today, the government of the late President Muhammadu Buhari will rank as the most disgusting thing to have happened in the body politics of Nigeria”
The government of President Buhari staged and continued the brutal clampdown on the members of the pro-secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra, including the kidnapping of the Director of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from Nairobi, Kenya, an action that has recently been deemed as criminal and unlawful by a High Court in Kenya. The government of the then-president Buhari created security nightmares in the South-East region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the guise of seeking to crush the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Hundreds of Igbo youths were slaughtered by security forces and armed non-state actors identified as unknown gunmen during the tenure of the late President Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari’s administration allowed armed herders to attack farming communities all across the Country, leading to the decision by the South West governors to set up the Amotekun militia which Buhari opposed.
“THERE is no gainsaying, without any shadow of doubt, that during the brutal eight years of the Buhari’s administration, the press faced several attacks in clear violation of the provision of the Constitution that mandates journalists to hold power to account (section 22). Also, the controversial Cybercrime Act became law in 2015, many media outlets and journalists have witnessed attacks from authorities for doing critical journalism.
The publisher and editor-in-chief of Weekly Source Newspaper in Bayelsa, Jones Abiri, was arrested in 2016 by the State Security Service (SSS) for alleged links to armed militancy in the Niger Delta. He was not released until two years later, recalled HURIWA.
Abiri was re-arrested in March 2019 and spent another seven months in prison before being granted bail by the Federal High Court in Abuja, after an intense campaign by media rights activists including HURIWA.
Besides, in the year 2018, police arrested Azeezat Adedigba, a reporter at Premium Times, to track her colleague, Samuel Ogundipe. The latter was in detention for five days over allegations that he had classified documents capable of causing a breach of national security and a breakdown of law and order.
For using his Facebook account to call out the federal government on the poor state of the nation, SSS arrested Ibrahim Dan-Halilu, a former editor with Daily Trust, in Aug. 2019. He was detained in Kaduna for 11 days without access to his relatives.
Buhari’s administration heavily invested in the acquisition of surveillance equipment for its security agencies. Media reports stated that In fact, Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has since 2015 acquired equipment to spy on phone conversations and oftentimes, journalists are targeted with this technology.
Also during the last elections conducted by the administration, journalists were harassed and arrested while carrying out their duties.
Under the nose of the then President Buhari, the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) became ruthlessly notorious for clamping down on Nigerian youths as they subject them to public shame through media parades in their hunt for internet fraudsters. Their names and pictures are spread on social media, before a trial has convicted them.
Buhari’s administration was remarkable for committing several cases of extrajudicial killings even when Section 33 (1) of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the right to life for all Nigerians but the manner security agencies, including the army, were deployed to suppress civil liberties was some of the most egregious violations of constitutional freedoms in the World in the 21st century.
HURIWA recalled vividly that around December 2015, the Nigerian Army launched an attack on members of the country’s Shia community, killing hundreds of people Just as today, many families still carry the scars. The military claimed that the Shia Muslims attempted to assassinate former Chief of Army Staff when the incidents occurred, but multiple sources who spoke with the media, however, insisted the soldiers killed scores without any threat to Buratai’s safety. The National HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA exonerated the then Army chief, General Tukur Buratai of the unlawful killings.
HURIWA recalled that the IMN members were planning to celebrate the first day of Rabi’ al-Awwal when the soldiers arrived at the venue of their programme. As the arguments between the soldiers and the IMN members got intense, the soldiers reportedly opened fire on the people, killing scores. They later proceeded to the residence of El-Zakzaky, where hundreds of people were hiding.
According to Amnesty International, the incident led to the death of hundreds of people and many were allegedly buried secretly by the army in a mass grave and 23 families were said to have been wiped out of existence.
In October 2020, soldiers in another case of gross human rights violations inflicted a war-grade assault on the Oyigbo community in Rivers state, after mobs suspected to be members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) killed some security personnel.
Even as the military authorities claimed that troops were deployed to the town to fish out terrorists who murdered soldiers and police officers, on-the-ground investigations revealed that soldiers inflicted bloodshed on the town.
Reliable information emerged revealing how soldiers sent on a peacekeeping assignment to Cross River communities fighting over a parcel of land at the boundary for nearly a century became murderous in Aug. 2022.
HURIWA observed that although the International Humanitarian Law, to which Nigeria is a party, provides that the military must take precautions to minimise harm to civilians during armed conflict, soldiers deployed to Nko used extreme force on residents. The rules of engagement governing internal military operations were flagrantly violated by the military forces with the tacitly approval of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
HURIWA notes that the Nigerian Police have a history of brutality and disrespect for the rule of law. For years, its officers have been accused of disregarding the human rights of accused persons, violently suppressing protests, infringing on fundamental rights, and corruption. HURIWA recalled that the Nigerian Police degenerated under the watchful eyes of Buhari just as many cases of extra-legal execution of detainees in police detention facilities were alleged.
All of these led to the #EndSARS protests against the activities of the operatives of the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). For weeks in October 2020, many Nigerian youths protested against all forms of irregularities by the police unit. The protests led to the disbandment of the police tactical squad.
But soldiers were deployed by Buhari to the epicentre of the nationwide protests at Lekki Tollgate on Oct. 20, 2020, killing a number, how many is still not confirmed. Many innocent Nigerians were also arrested randomly after the incident. Media reports claimed that over 40 peaceful protesters were killed and their corpses stolen by the military forces responsible for the dastardly crimes of crime against humanity.
Aside from this, security forces used excessive unnecessary force, including lethal force, against peaceful demonstrators on different occasions, a development that grossly negates the core democratic tenets of freedom of assembly, association, and expression.
“It was painful that #RevolutionNow protesters, June 12 protesters, Yoruba Nation agitators, and many other groups were criminalised by security operatives who under Buhari, did not see protests as an essential element of democracy,” Kemi Afolabi, a concerned Nigerian brutalised during a protest in 2021, told the media.
HURIWA recalled that there was also a pattern of failure to comply with court judgments under Buhari’s administration. This, according to human rights lawyers, was a mockery of the law.
Under his watch, the SSS became notorious for disobeying court orders and he did not at any point publicly condemn the security operatives for disobeying the courts.
HURIWA alluded to the case of Omoyele Sowore, an online publisher arrested in 2019 over allegations that he wanted to overthrow Buhari. Despite a court order that freed him on bail, he was not released until he spent 134 days in detention. Even in broad daylight, SSS invaded the court to re-arrest him after he had been granted bail.
The Buhari’s administration no doubt disregarded court judgments with impunity and has entered the history book as one administration that made impunity and lawlessness by government officials as the hallmarks of his eight years of administration of Nigeria.
Comrade EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
July 14th, 2025.
Liverpool’s forward Alexander Isak has finally addressed the swirling rumors about his headline-making move from Newcastle to Liverpool, hinting at untold stories behind the staggering deal. The striker completed a record £125 million transfer to Anfield on deadline day after a summer filled with speculation and excitement.
After making his long-awaited first appearance of the season for Sweden, Isak shared intriguing insights, stating, “Not everyone has the full picture, but that’s something for another day.” He came off the bench during Sweden’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Kosovo in Pristina, eager to contribute.
“I can’t control everything that’s said or written, but I’m thrilled to be a Liverpool player,” Isak declared. He replaced Newcastle’s Anthony Elanga with just 18 minutes left in the match, registering three shots—two on target—before receiving a yellow card for a clash with Kosovo’s Fidan Aliti.
“It’s amazing that everything was settled before the camp started, allowing me to focus fully on my football again. It’s been a completely new experience for me, but I’m learning and growing mentally off the pitch as well,” he commented, reflecting on his journey.
Notably, Isak had previously opted out of Newcastle’s pre-season friendlies and missed the start of the season. He also remained an unused substitute in Sweden’s 2-2 qualifying match against Slovenia. Sweden’s manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, noted that Isak had only completed three training sessions with the team before the match.
Kosovo clinched their first points in Group B with goals from Elvis Rexhbecaj and Vedat Muriqi, while Lindon Emerllahu received a red card in stoppage time for a second yellow. In the current group standings, Switzerland sits at the top, followed by Kosovo in second place and Sweden in third. This transfer saga is far from over, and fans can’t wait to see what unfolds next!
Suspecting an official conspiracy to mask the real cause of the death of a youngster shot by the police who died as a result of the attack few days afterward, the Cross River State Police Command has been told that the plan by it to conduct an autopsy on 22-year-old Moses Mba, who died after being shot by a police officer attached to the residence of Governor Bassey Otu is absolutely unlawful and totally a hogwash.
HURIWA is also miffed that the Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Ben Otu has not sufficiently atoned or demonstrated commensurate remorse over the needless, senseless and reckless execution of a citizen by police operatives protecting the governor’s official complex.
“What exactly is the crime of this citizen, Moses Mba to deserve summary execution without judicial trial? Is it an offence for a citizen to demand to visit the governor whose election into that office is as a result of the exercise of the mandate bestowed on the holder of that office by the voters who as citizens are the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria? How does a totally unarmed young boy posed any sort of threat to the life of the governor to allow for his immediate execution? Is the police unaware that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria, from which those who are in public offices derive legitimacy to exercise authority? The Cross River State governor should ensure that the killer of this citizen is made to face the full wrath of the law. We say no to these cover up plots by the police.”
The leading civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which made this observation, is demanding a totally independent autopsy to be carried out without the direction of the police because if that is not done then it is as good as allowing the police to dictate what happens in a matter in which one of their operatives is obviously guilty of unprovoked and premeditated murder. The Rights group also faulted the Police’s decision to conduct autopsy on the young boy the police killed barely hours after it was alleged that the bereaved family rejected an offer of the paltry sum of N5 million from the police as compensation and final settlement for the wilful murder of their beloved son.
HURIWA recalled that the media reported the Commissioner of Police, Rashid Afegbua, as disclosing that the police has arranged to conduct the autopsy as part of investigations to determine the cause of death and the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
“Yes, shooting was involved, but we need to know what caused the death. Was it the gunshot or something else? We have concluded plans to conduct the autopsy and whatever the outcome will be made public,” Afegbua said.
HURIWA recalled that the victim of the police extrajudicial execution, Moses Mba was reportedly beaten and shot in the leg by security operatives at the governor’s former residence on August 1, after insisting on seeing the governor, claiming he had a message from God for him.
His mother, Mrs Victoria Mba, said he later died on August 9 at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital in Calabar from injuries sustained in the incident. She described her son as deeply committed to God’s work since childhood, maintaining that his only intention was to deliver a divine message to the governor.
In a media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA warned against any cover-up in this unfortunate but altogether avoidable murder carried out by the police. “How does the Cross River police command expect any right-thinking person that the plan to conduct an autopsy on the remains of a youngster that the same police intentionally killed would be transparent? We in the organised civil society community in Nigeria are by this media statement, asking the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun to direct that the trigger happy police operative who shot the boy to stop him from seeing the Cross River State governor should be arrested and investigated for murder.
“The family of the victim of this police murder should be allowed together with the civil society organizations, to conduct an independent autopsy with the presence of a police representative, so that the entire process wouldn’t be muddied up by the Cross River State Police Command in its attempt to cover up this dastardly crime of murder committed by the police.
“It is very likely that since the police failed to bribe their way out of being subjected to the due process of the law, the police is now gambling with the prospect of conducting an autopsy whose result is already predetermined just so that the police operative responsible for shooting to death of Moses Mba would be left off the hook in a criminal conspiratorial plots by the police”.
“Anything less than an independent autopsy is non-negotiable and absolutely unconstitutional. The police can’t be the judge and the prosecutor in its own case,” HURIWA conclusively affirmed.
Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
September 8th, 2025.
Civil Rights advocacy Group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has described the simultaneous deadly attacks at the weekend by terrorists of Boko Haram and ISWAP, bandits and kidnappers in Borno, Katsina and Edo State in which more than 131 Nigerians were slaughtered as the intensification of the bloody war being waged relentlessly by the daredevil armed non-state actors in Nigeria.
HURIWA said the recent actions of the military and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) to confront these terrorists with increasing rates of success are particularly a welcome idea just as the Rights group called on the Chief of Defence Staff General Chris Gwabin Musa and the National Security Adviser to President Tinubu Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to continue to provide statesmanship and leadership so the security forces so the armed forces will in the shortest possible time frame, clinically defeat the terrorists, bandits, insurgents threatening the National security of Nigeria.
HURIWA condemned the fact that over 65, 000 lives of the citizens have been wasted by terrorists, bandits and insurgents around the length and breadth of Nigeria even as the Rights group complained bitterly about the slow speed of dispensation of justice against mass killers and terrorists by the courts of Nigeria.
In a media statement on Sunday, HURIWA through the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko regretted that terrorists believed to belong to ISWAP/Boko Haram have slaughtered at least 55 people in an attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, where people had recently returned after years of displacement.
Residents of Darul Jama, located near the border with Cameroon, said the raid occurred on Friday night and fighters believed to be from Boko Haram arrived on motorbikes, shooting indiscriminately and setting homes ablaze.
Accounts of the number of deaths varied. Babagana Ibrahim, a commander of a government-aligned militia, told the news agency AFP that 55 people were killed, including six soldiers.
Besides, HURIWA applauded the residents of Shagari and Bimasa communities in Sokoto State who on Thursday launched counterattacks against bandits, rescuing kidnapped relatives and reportedly killing at least 15 of the attackers.
Sources said that the villagers, armed with locally made weapons, tracked the bandits into the forest after a series of raids on their communities in Shagari and Tureta Local Government Areas.
“In Bimasa, residents killed several bandits, retrieved stolen animals, and even captured one suspect alive. The suspect was later paraded in the village,” a source said.
HURIWA recalled that seven people were reportedly killed as bandits launched an attack on Magajin Wando village in Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State.
HURIWA gathered that the attack occurred between 11 pm and midnight on Friday.
The Katsina State Government confirmed the incident on Saturday in a statement by the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasir Mu’azu.
According to the statement by the Katsina Home Affairs Ministry, many people would have been killed but for the intervention of security operatives who confronted the bandits.
The Rights group applauded the timely intervention of the security agents, which according to HURIWA demonstrated a fresh perspective in terms of how the top leadership of the security services has tinkered with the operational strategies to hasten timeline for counter action or response times.
The Rights group encouraged the armed forces and police, including the Department of State Services, to ensure that proactive measures are more often deployed to beat the terrorists before they attack the citizens.
On the deadly massacre of security operatives in Edo State, HURIWA condemned these killings and lamented how non-state actors are allowed to kill eight security officials and then went ahead to kidnap Chinese expatriate workers.
HURIWA said the killings of these operatives of the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps shows that there is the ever increasing need for collaboration amongst the different armed security services in the country in such a way that whenever any of the segments of the armed forces comes under attack by terrorists, the sister agencies could be quickly mobilised within record time to support the security agents under attack by non-state armed groups.
“The pride of any nation is continuously promoted when it becomes a regular feature of the armed forces that they always conquer and vanquish terrorists who attempt to torpedo the security agents. The armed security forces ought to dominate the war environment at all times”, HURIWA affirmed.
The Rights group has therefore asked the National Security Adviser to ensure that the deadly incident that happened on Friday, when a group of suspected armed kidnappers attacked a convoy of the paramilitary Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Chinese nationals working for local BUA Cement, should never happen again.
HURIWA recalled that the NSCDC spokesperson, Afolabi Babawale said four Chinese workers who were kidnapped were rescued, but one was missing. Eight operatives from the agency were killed and four were seriously injured, he added.
HURIWA conclusively asserted that there is encouraging signs that the armed forces of Nigeria and the Department of State Services are more frequently working in unison just as the Rights group stated that it is important that the terrorists are overwhelmed and decisively defeated by the armed forces of Nigeria even as HURIWA has called for citizens support for the war on terror to be won as soon as possible given that the war on terror has gone on for over a decade.
Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
SEPTEMBER 7th 2025.
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