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The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for the arrest, prosecution and judicial sanctions of the misbehaving members of the Federal House of Representatives who were spotted on live television engaging in fisticuffs over differences on selection of house leaders.
The rights group blamed the offices of Federal Attorney General and that of Inspector General of Police for abysmally abdication of their official investigative and prosecutorial duties when in the recent past some parliamentarians engaged in serious physical combats in full glare of the global community and some of those House of Representatives members like Dino Melaye have proceeded to secure election into the upper chamber of the National Assembly in the current dispensation under the All Progressives Congress-led administration.
Against the backdrop of the physical exchanges of punches which took place yesterday at the Federal House of Representatives by some members, HURIWA, through its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, affirmed that the failure of the investigative and judicial mechanisms of legal rewards and punishments and the total compromise of the Nigeria Police Force have persistently motivated some rascally misdemeanour amongst top echelons of Nigeria’s political hierarchy.
The group, therefore, called for the identification of all the fighting legislators and their prosecution before the competent courts of law for breaches of public decorum and for bringing Nigeria to near global opprobrium by their gross display of legislative irresponsibility and reckless show of lawlessness in a place which ought to be the auditorium of the highest respect for law and order.
It said legislative immunity shouldn’t cover committal of illegality and grave crimes that border on criminality and infliction of bodily harm.
HURIWA stated thus: “Nigeria must ensure that our laws are no respecter of any person no matter how highly placed. It’s not in the place of lawmakers to engage on illegality believing that they have immunity against arrest and prosecution. The constitution of Nigeria does not and will not recognise any outrageous criminal activities of misbehaving warriors masquerading as legislators.
“Persons who perpetrate any kind of crime must be prosecuted and sanctioned in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These national Assembly members must not be allowed to distabilise our current experimentation with democracy and multi party rule. Enough is enough.”
•Photo shows Onwubiko
