By Dansu Peter
Recall that some United Kingdom lawmakers have written the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland QC, over widespread violence in Nigeria.
The lawmakers including Caroline Cox, David Alton, Jin Shannon and Helena Kennedy, said thousands of civilians in the country had been killed and elements of the Nigerian Government may be complicit in the violence.
However, APPG opines that the letter by the UK lawmakers was a clear attempt to unsettle the country.
Addressing newsmen on Friday, Ibrahim Abubakar, Executive Secretary of SHAC, called on Commonwealth to disregard the letter sent to its Secretary-General by the APG, noting that it isn't interest of natural justice.
He said, “We have observed with concern that 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. Earlier in the year, the APPG mounted a campaign of disinformation against Nigeria 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.
“We at that time drew attention to the mischievous nature of this report and the potential it has for doing damage. We also noted the deviousness of the APPG trying to separate itself from the UK Parliament by claiming that its decisions do not reflect the view of the Parliament and are also not binding on the house. 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.
“Thankfully, the efforts of the APPG to trigger a sectarian division in Nigeria failed. The APG has now resorted to finding other means of dividing the country by highlighting new areas in this report this is what it tried to do when it wrote to the Secretary General of Commonwealth. 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. It is surprising that the same a PPG that could not offer solution in its own home country is asking the Commonwealth though to intervene in their face of Nigeria. Had the APPG being sincere and tackled the issue of Boko Haram head on as well as the issue of and herdsmen we will not be where we are now.
“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.
“We, therefore, want to alert the world and other stakeholders to the devious nature of the campaign being waged by APPG against Nigeria. The APG and the United kingdom's Parliament should be held responsible for any further breach, degeneration or worsening of the security situation in Nigeria. Ordinarily would like to wonder why APPG is interested informant in trouble for Nigeria but we say that the parliamentarians who are members of this group do not believe that colonization is over. It is most unfortunate that something like this can be happening at a time when the entire world has become aware to issues of racial equality.
“We are therefore restating our earlier call and demand that the APPG, the United Kingdom's Parliament and any other country with such intent should desist from treating Nigeria as a conquered colony. We think the United Kingdom has enough issues of its own that eight parliamentarians should focus on they should stop obsessing about Nigeria.
The centre, therefore, called on the Nigerian military not to be dissuaded by the letter but continue to protect the Nigerian territorial integrity.
He added, “We would like to urge the Nigerian military not to in any way be dissuaded by these distracting strategies, because that is what we see The APPG report to be. We want the Commonwealth to disregard the letter sent to his secretary general by the APG this isn't interest of natural justice. The United Kingdom cannot cause problems for Nigeria on one hand and then turn around pretending to proffer solutions when in reality it is looking for ways to make the situation worse.
“Our demand to the federal government is that should write to the Commonwealth not to interfere in the affairs of Nigeria in the manner suggested by the APPG. Our position is that where the Commonwealth refuses to back down or decides to interfere in Nigeria’s affairs in the manner suggested by the APPG the Federal Government should strongly consider withdrawing Nigeria’s membership of that body and immediately begin the process of achieving same.”
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