New Telegraph

CISA to FG: Sanction Amnesty Int’l now

…says proliferation of NGOs in N/East not helping locals

A civil society group, the Citizens Initiative for Security Awareness (CISA), has called for immediate sanctions against Amnesty International (AI) following its latest report on military operations in the North East.

Recall that in the report, the global rights’ group had accused the military of killing and detaining senior citizens in the troubled region.

In the 67-page report entitled: “My Heart is in Pains: Older People’s Experience of Conflict, Displacement and Detention in North East Nigeria”, AI had come down hard on the military.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has since taken strong exceptions to the document, which it noted, was a deliberate ploy to discredit the ongoing counter-insurgency war in the North East.

At a world press conference in Abuja, Friday, National Coordinator of CISA, Mr. Chidi Omeje, described the report as not only “ludicrous”, but “ridden with factual errors”.

While admitting that some fighting troops may have breached their rules of engagement, Omeje, however, regretted that the organisation was too quick to “maliciously” call out the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

He said: “In view of the above curious developments, CISA is strongly of the view that the government should not hesitate any longer in shining its touch light on the activities of international NGOs operating in our country, including Amnesty International with a view to Unearthing their ulterior motives and to sanction them appropriately.

“This is insensitive communication and it does not help Nigerian citizens. Don’t come to our country to instigate a crisis, to pour petrol into a raging fire. CISA is, however, not entirely surprised that Amnesty International could release such a shoddy and hastily packaged report considering its well-known antecedent as an organisation quite desperate and utterly determined to blackmail and run our military down.

“Their consistent negative profiling and demonization of Nigerian Armed Forces depicts more of a deliberate and well-orchestrated plan to discredit the country for the purpose that is yet to unravel.

“Even more curious is the fact Amnesty International is always more active in presenting distractive allegations whenever the terrorists are losing ground in the battle with Nigerian military.”

Read Previous

Nigeria Shell employees causing oil leaks for profit, says Dutch TV

Read Next

Fernandes, Mourinho win PL awards for November

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *