An Abuja-based rights group, the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has protested what it described as the undue delay in prosecuting killers of four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt (Aluu 4), as well as the internet fraudsters who killed Miss Cynthia Osukogu, a post-graduate student of Nasarawa State University, after luring her to a Lagos hotel. It similarly condemned the failure to conclusively try killers of the Apo 6 Igbo traders in Abuja, ten years after the unfortunate incident.

The rights group, speaking through a statement signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf said: “We are ashamed that Nigeria’s criminal justice administration has become the most criminally compromised globally thereby institutionalising a regime of impunity. We therefore plead with all relevant authorities to implement practical measures to quicken the prosecution of the murderers of Miss. Cynthia Osokogu; Aluu 4 undergraduates and the Apo 6 traders, among other gruesome cases of mass murders in Nigeria over the years.”

HURIWA recalled that the 25-year Cynthia Osokogu was lured and killed by suspected Facebook criminals in Cosmulla Hotel, Lakeview Estate, Festac Town in Lagos, on July 22 last year but regretted that the suspects, namely, Okwumo Nwabufo, Olisaloka Ezike, Orji Osita and Ezike Nonso, “are not being efficiently prosecuted for the alleged murder by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution.”

HURIWA also lamented that seven months after the four UNIPORT students – Ugona Kelechi Obuzor; Biringa Chiadika Lordson; Mike Lloyd Toku and Takena Erikena – were gruesomely murdered by villagers in Omuokiri-Aluu in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of River State “the mass murderers are yet to be efficiently and effectively prosecuted.”

The group equally expressed sadness that “the killers of the Apo 6 traders in Abuja are still not convicted over ten years since the dastardly criminal act was perpetrated by operatives of Abuja Police Command.”

HURIWA advised that one of the ways to fast-track the trial of serious criminal cases with far reaching significance is for the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria to establish a national data bank of priority criminal cases across the country and effectively implement administrative measures to quicken the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria to comply with international best practices and eliminate the current regime of impunity in the country. The group also wants the chief judges of the 36 states of the federation to work closely with the national hierarchy of Nigeria’s judiciary “to repair the extensive damage to our image caused by slow dispensation of criminal justice over the years.”

HURIWA urged the hierarchy of the nation’s judiciary to borrow a leaf from the British judicial system so as to quicken the dispensation of justice.

“It is inconceivable that Britain whereby Nigeria borrowed criminal justice system during the colonial era has advanced and is renowned for one of the most efficient, effective and speedy dispensation of criminal justice in the World whereas Nigeria which borrowed from the olden days Britain has continued to practice the pre-colonial criminal justice system,” the rights group said.

HURIWA also tasked the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), “to actively work with the Inspector General of Police; Commissioners of police in the 36 states and Abuja and the Attorneys General of the 36 states to effectively bring about pragmatic measures for the quick dispensation of justice.” The group, at the same time, charged the National Assembly to quicken the process of passing relevant extant bills which spell out strategies for effectively modernising Nigeria’s moribund criminal laws.

•Photo shows the Aluu 4.

Update news