Killings: British lawmakers’ letter to Commonwealth capable of destabilizing Nigeria – Centre

The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) has described it as a clear target to destabilize Nigeria, a letter recently addressed to the Commonwealth Secretary-General over the unrest in the country.

Some lawmakers in the UK had written Patricia Scotland QC, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth alleging widespread violence in Nigeria.

According to the lawmakers, thousands of civilians in Nigeria are being killed alleging that elements in government may be complicit in the violence.

However, SHAC, in a press conference on Friday said the letter was not written in good faith and a clear attempt to unsettle the country.

The Executive Secretary of the group Ibrahim Abubakar urged the Commonwealth not to take the letter seriously, noting that it isn’t in the interest of natural justice.

“We have observed with concern that the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Freedom of Religion or Belief of the United Kingdom’s Parliament is back to its game of hounding Nigeria,” the group said.

SHAC recalled that APPG had earlier in the year mounted a campaign of disinformation against the Nigerian government, this, according to it, was done through the publication and marketing of a report titled “Nigeria Unfolding Genocide.”

“This effort to market the report of doom fell flat as few Nigerians fell for the intended incitement to sectarian violence.

“The authors of the report packaged it such that people would be misled into reading targeted sectarian killing into the attacks being carried out by Boko Haram, bandits and militant herdsmen. Had Nigerians fallen for the manufacture of dissent the entire country would have been on fire by now.

“For us, this is a trick by the APPG to evade responsibility for the destabilization agenda it is implementing in Nigeria. This same organization used reports it fraudulently authored against the interest of Nigeria to make a case for the discontinuation of funding to the country.

“It has not deviated from alleging persecution of Christians and targeted extermination to now focus on other areas that are totally unrelated to the issues at hand.

“Boko Haram was able to spread as much as it did because international countries that should have come to the aid of Nigeria did not do so is sincere APPG would have coordinated these other countries to respond in the appropriate way to the problems that Nigeria was facing from terrorism as represented by Boko Haram.

“But instead of apologizing to Nigeria and Nigerians, the APPG is rather stocking the fire of division by creating the impression that the government of Nigeria has abandoned its citizens whereas this is not the true position.

“The APPG and the United kingdom’s Parliament should be held responsible for any further breach, degeneration or worsening of the security situation in Nigeria.

“It is most unfortunate that something like this can be happening at a time when the entire world has become aware of issues of racial equality.

The group called on the President Muhammadu Buhari led government to write to the Commonwealth, asking it not to interfere in the affairs of Nigeria in the manner suggested by the APPG.

It further advised the Federal Government to withdraw from the Commonwealth if it decides to interfere in Nigeria’s affairs in the manner suggested by the APPG.