Rivers Killing: Women group protest non-prosecution of offenders

The Women Arise for Justice today protested the non-prosecution of perpetrators of the killings recorded in the recently concluded Rivers State re-run elections and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to query the Governor of the state, Chief Nyesom Wike over the violence.

The group also asked the government to probe the abduction and the eventual killing of Colonel, Samaila Inusa in Kaduna.

The over 1000  women who  stormed the Presidential villa in Abuja during a peaceful protest said all the deaths, abduction, intimidation and destruction of property were the product of the do or die politics that characterized the last Rivers re-run.

National President of the group, Jummai Samuel Pukat who led the protest said Governor Wike as the Chief Security Officer of the state should be held responsible for all the atrocities since his body language and utterance directly constitute instruction to the killings including a serving Corps member Samuel Okonta.

“It was Governor Wike who threatened that there are areas that people from the federal level cannot access in the state. It was him who said anyone coming from outside Rivers state for the re-run must first write their will, which implies that he was confident of how to make sure federal agents do not make it out of Rivers state alive.

“Our sons, brothers, husband and fathers cannot be continually cut down in their prime with the federal government remaining indifferent simply because their murder took place in Wike‘s Rivers state. We cannot wait until more governors join in this killing spree. As mothers we no longer have the ability to sleep at night when our loved ones have to undertake even the most basic assignment in Rivers state,” she said.

She therefore call for urgent government action saying those killed must not die in vain to console the family and prevent future recurrence., adding that those who lost their properties must be reassured that there is still a government and that it enforces the law.