A frontline rights group last night condemned what it called the unwarranted use of lethal force, yesterday, against largely peaceful civilian pro-Biafra protesters in Onitsha, Anambra State.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) in a statement in Abuja called the crackdown a crime against humanity, laying the blame is squarely on the desk of the Inspector General of Police and President Muhammadu Buhari for reportedly directing the armed police operatives and other security agents to deploy the force of arm and violence to quell a peaceful demonstration.

The rights group in the statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, called on President Buhari to stop the mass killings of pro-Biafra protesters.

Accusing the Nigerian Government of plotting to ignite violent insurgency in the largely peaceful and law abiding South East of Nigeria so as to militarily occupy and destroy the communally erected infrastructures by the people of South East and to inflict genocidal killings of hapless but peaceful civilian population. HURIWA has therefore appealed to the United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon and other credible world leaders such as the President of the United States of America Mr Barack Obama and the German Chancellor Mrs Angela Merkel to intervene and stop the planned Nigerian Federal Government’s conflagration and destruction of South East of Nigeria.

“World leaders must stop the plot of the current Nigerian Government to destabilise the peace currently being enjoyed in the Igbo heartland. Igbo land must not be turned into Somalia by President Muhammadu Buhari and his goons,” the group said.

HURIWA said the current state sponsored violence and the aggression of both the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Service headed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged Cousin Alhaji Lawal Isa Daura towards unarmed Igbo civilians calling for the release of the detained leader of the Europe-based Radio Biafra and leader of the Free People of Biafra (IPOB) Mr Nnamdi Kanu must be condemned and is hereby accordingly and absolutely condemned.

“The needless killing of civilians just for democratically protesting and ventilating a lawful demand even for self government recognised under international laws is capable of making otherwise critics of the styles of the Biafra agitators to actively join and support the group and this is capable of broadening the scope and effectiveness of the pro-Biafra campaigns locally and internationally. Those who instruct armed security operatives to kill civilians will in due course be dragged before international Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands for prosecution over crimes against humanity,” HURIWA said.

•Photo shows Biafran activists demonstrating yesterday in Onitsha.