The Federal Government says it will fight terrorism with all the means at its disposal, despite the entreaties of the Amnesty international.
A statement by the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, says government will ignore Amnesty’s rantings, especially when they come from an organisation that does not hold itself to the same standards it demands of others.
The Presidency is reacting to Amnesty International’s latest salvo at Nigeria’s response to terrorism.
Again, according to the statement, Amnesty International has decided to side with terrorists, before the liberty of those they injure, displace and murder.
It observes that Amnesty International deploys the language of universal human rights only in defence, and outright promotion of the course of those that violently oppose the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The Presidency notes that Amnesty international has been parroting the line of Nnamdi Kanu and his proscribed terror organisation, IPOB, which they work to legitimise its course to Western audiences.
It says that controversial American lobbyists are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to launch the same vilification, and launder IPOB’s reputation in Washington DC.
The statement stresses that IPOB murders Nigerian citizens, kill police officers and military personnel, and set government property on fire.
It says the proscribed group has now amassed a substantial stockpile of weapons and bombs across the country.
The Presidency says Amnesty International will not have made aspersions if the group were to be in a western country, instead, there would be silence or mealy-mouthed justification of western governments’ action to check the spread of terrorism.
It says despite Amnesty International’s self-proclaimed mandate to impartially transcend borders, unfortunately in Nigeria they play only domestic politics.
According to the statement, Amnesty International is being used as cover for the organisation’s local leaders to pursue their self-interests, regretting that the trend is not uncommon in Africa.
It says Amnesty International has no legal right to exist in Nigeria, urging that it must open a formal investigation into those claiming to represent it in Nigeria.
The Presidency urges Amnesty International to reject the outrageously, tendentious misinformation it receives, and bring some semblance of due diligence to the sources they base their claims on.
BELLO WAKILI