A coalition of Civil Society Organizations have urged government at all levels to Put in place adequate security measures to protect communities, churches and worshippers as citizens travel for the Christmas festivities across the country.
The organizations in a communique on the Christmas festivities identified patterns of atrocities which usually occurs across different parts of the Middle Belt of Nigeria during the Christmas seasons as reasons for the call.
The Communique was signed by 20 CSOs including professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu and Barrister Gloria Ballason of House of Justice, Leadership of Global Rights, The Kukah Centre, Atrocities Watch Africa, Open Bar Initiative, The Gideon and Funmi Para- Mallam Peace Foundation, Middle Belt Times, Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative (RADi) among others.
The Communique stresses the urgent need to prioritize the welfare and protection of displaced Persons (IDPs) and Internally Displaced Communities (IDCs) in the Middle-Belt and across all parts of Nigeria at this Christmas and beyond.
It Acknowledges the severe and complex challenges displaced persons face including loss of homes and livelihoods; documentation and identity; as well as the indiscriminate consequences of vulnerability to violence.
The group calls on the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) to urgently mobilized to provide, food, water, shelter and physical security during this season to IDPs & IDCs across the Middle-Belt & other parts of the country.
It Urges President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grant assent to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) (Domestication Bill), to ensure a coordinated and harmonized rights-based approach to a national crisis of IDPs & IDCs.
It cited communities where the Christmas period atrocities occurred since 2012 to include: Christmas day twin bombing at Ungwan Rukuba and Gada Biyu in Jos, Plateau State, the terror attack at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger, Goska community in Jema’a Local Government, Southern Kaduna, Bokkos and Barikin Ladi of Plateau State, Anwase, Gboko of Benue State and kidnapped in an ECWA Church in Ayetorokiri, Bunu-Kabba, Kogi state.
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