HRH Queen Zainab Duke-Abiola, widow of Moshood Abiola, presumed winner of 1993 presidential election, says actions must be taken to curtail the menace of kidnapping, rape, banditry and terrorism globally.
She spoke virtually yesterday during the 4th World Youth Summit for Peace 2022, organized by the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in Pakistan.
The event was themed, ‘International Solidarity: Creating a Word For All Ages’.
In her keynote address, Duke-Abiola, who is the founder of Akasooba Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ACPCR) and the Akasoba of Kalabari Kingdom, Rivers State, recalled how on April 15, 2014, about 300 female students, all teenagers were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorist group from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
“They were mostly raped, impregnated and tortured beyond imagination. Whilst some were eventually rescued some are still being held captive in the kidnappers’ den under the most inhuman conditions.
“It’s time for the international community to stop treating those marauding murderers masquerading as religious martyrs with kid gloves,” she said.
On the persistent farmers-herders clashes in Nigeria and to some extent the whole of West Africa, she said this has had a negative effect on food production.
She said: “Incidentally the unabating insurgency and terrorists’ attacks including the farmers herdsmen imbroglios have had a negative effect on food production as farmers are too frightened to go to their farmlands.”
This, she said has led to soaring inflation and hunger in the land, adding: “It is crystal clear that global terrorism is a threat to human rights.”
“The world must not sit down and fold its hands. This is a clarion call to action. We, as leaders, must continue to strive indefatigably towards the actualization of a terror free society.
“This is the Pivot of this Keynote Address that terror anywhere is terror everywhere and that terrorism in any conundrum is a violent abrogation of our fundamental Human Rights and the world should have zero tolerance for terrorism.
“As leaders, we must all hold hands together and form a circle of protection around the weak and the vulnerable, especially the Youths in our society and offer them the guidance they need to stave off temptations that often lead to the path of destruction,” she said.
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