Foremost civil Rights advocacy Group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has described the severe flooding in Maiduguri, Borno state as serious threats to Nigeria’s National Security interest just as the Rights group wondered why the federal government is not forthcoming with the most scientific reasons for the floods which unleashed devastating destruction to lives and property of the citizenry.
HURIWA wondered why the minister of water and natural resources hasn’t been fired because the human accident due to neglect or poor maintenance culture that led to the collapse of the dam in Borno state could have been avoided if the Ministry of water and natural resources is well coordinated and governed.
HURIWA said the President who only just returned after a long absence due to his unknown travels from China through the United Kingdom, hasn’t showed any rational commitments to ascertain the most correct and fundamental causes of these floods which are the worst in recorded history in Maiduguri but the President has rather visited the scenes of the disaster without announcing any sensible measures to get to the roots of the apparently ‘man-made’ disaster in Maiduguri.
The Rights group also expressed consternation that dreaded terrorists escaped from the Maiduri prisons when the floods happened just as the Rights group said the federal government has not demonstrated the political will to go after these sophisticated terrorists that possibly escaped from the Maiduguri prisons.
“The information that hardened prisoners who are mostly captured terrorists, is nightmarish because the knowledge that detained terrorists and mass killers are on the run is a highly combustible and toxic threats to the nation’s national security interest.
HURIWA recalled that the Nigerian authorities say more than 270 inmates are now known to be missing after escaping from custody when severe flooding damaged a prison in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
So far, seven are back in detention.
The flooding was caused by the collapse of a dam following heavy rainfall.
Several hundred thousand people in Maiduguri, which is the Borno state capital, have been forced from their homes by the floodwaters and at least 30 have died.
Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum described the extent of the damage as “beyond human imagination”.
This is the first time that the Nigerian authorities have admitted to the numbers who fled custody.
HURIWA which extended her good wishes to the good people of Maiduguri, however tasked both the federal and sub-national governments to put concrete measures in place to prevent the reoccurrence of such a devastating but altogether avoidable man-made disaster.
The Rights group through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko has suggested the composition of a strong powered investigative panel to get to the exact root causes of the Maiduguri floods and identify the government officials at the federal ministry of water and natural resources whose dereliction of duty may have occasioned the collapse of the dam.
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