By George Mgbeleke

Backing the wife of Nigeria’s President Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu’s advocacy for further aistrikes by the United States to target terrorists in the North of Nigeria, pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) described her position as logically sound and overwhelmingly popular amongst millions of Nigerians.

During a visit to the United States of America, Nigeria’s first lady was interviewed by Fox News during which time she said the US strikes were a ‘blessing,’ welcomes collaboration with Trump.

She said: “America’s Christmas Day strike on Islamist militants in northwest Nigeria was a “blessing,” Tinubu said, signaling that her husband’s government welcomes further U.S. involvement as it confronts insurgents and criminal gangs.

“The intervention of the U.S. was quite a welcome development,” Tinubu told Fox News Digital during a week-long visit to Washington, D.C.

“Nigeria is looking forward to collaboration” with the U.S. on security issues. “We are expecting that there will be more.”

Welcoming the call for more US strikes on terrorists in the North of Nigeria as made by the Wife of President Tinubu, HURIWA in a press statement signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, argued strongly that only follow-up strikes on terrorists camps by the United States could deliver the kind of successful result that would cause massive damage to the infrastructure of Islamic terrorists in Nigeria.

The rights group said the unprecedented and massive scale of civilian casualties caused by the terrorists demands that sustained strikes by the United States has the capacity to cripple the operational capability of the terrorists. HURIWA said the heinous crime of the terrorists should be met with decisive airstrikes to neutralise and degrade the terrorists.

HURIWA recalled that Nigeria has ranked sixth in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, with a score of 7.658, moving up from eighth place in 2023 and 2024.

According to the 2025 report released on March 5, the country recorded 565 terrorism-related deaths in 2024, indicating an increase in fatalities over the previous two years.

“…Deaths in Nigeria peaked at 2,101 in 2014, before dropping to 392 in 2022, the lowest level since 2011. However, fatalities increased by 34 per cent in 2023 to 533, and further to 565 in 2024.”

The report further explained that IS-Sahel has expanded its reach beyond its primary area of operation in the Liptako-Gourma region, which spans the borders of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. In 2024, the group launched a series of attacks across several countries, including Nigeria (16 attacks), Niger (12 attacks, Mali (6 attacks), and Burkina Faso (1 attack).

Based on these statistics, HURIWA is therefore calling on the US president to order more airstrikes targeting terrorists in Nigeria.

By George Mgbeleke

Even as the trial of eleven persons accused of killing ARISE News journalist, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, was stalled on Tuesday at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory due to the absence of the defendants in court, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko has urged the Honourable federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to take over the prosecution to ensure swift, decisive and professionally excellent trial.

HURIWA said it is inexplicable and absolutely unacceptable that the prosecution team and the officials of the Correctional Service have caused undue delay of the matter which in the view of HURIWA is one of the top-most public interest matter given the circumstances of the death of the journalist and the fact that millions of the viewers of ARISE News television were violently deprived of the creative presence of Miss. Maduagwu whose precious was taken away by the men of the underworld who have been reportedly caught by the police. HURIWA stated that millions of Nigerians are interested to know how the government has handled the prosecution of the suspects and it will be a spectacular image problem for Nigeria should this show of shame by the Correctional Service officers continue.

“We in HURIWA think that if there is any legal matter in which the presence of the Honourable Federal Attorney General is needed urgently, then this case that the prosecution has already started to delay the hearing through avoidable technicality is that top priority public interest case. We are aware that the AGF has on some occasions in the recent times, taken over some cases from the respective prosecution teams and decided to that his office would henceforth handle them. We urge Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to take over the prosecution of the accused killers of the ARISE News journalist so that the Correctional Service officers wouldn’t have any further flimsy excuse not to produce the suspects before the court of law to face the long arm of the law. HURIWA warned that should the prosecution of these alleged killers of the ARISE NEWS JOURNALIST be mismanaged, then Nigerians would never trust the administration of criminal justice by the government.

The proceedings were halted after the authorities of the Kuje Correctional Centre failed to convey the defendants to the court. At the resumed hearing, prosecution counsel, Adama Musa, informed the court of the defendants’ absence, although their lawyers were present. He expressed frustration, stating that prison officials claimed they were unaware of the trial date despite four prosecution witnesses being ready to testify.

HURIWA recalled that the defendants were earlier arraigned on January 21, 2026, with trial dates scheduled for February 9, 10 and 12. In response to the development, Justice Mohammed Idris adjourned the matter to tomorrow and urged witnesses to remain available in the interest of justice. He also ordered that a hearing notice be issued to the Kuje Correctional Services to ensure the defendants are produced in court.

HURIWA recalled that this specific matter relates to a violent robbery that occurred on September 29, 2025, at Unique Apartments in Katampe Extension, Abuja, during which Maduagwu, another victim identified as Danlami, and a security guard were killed.

The eleven accused — Shamsu Hassan, Sani Sirajo, Hassan Isah, Abubakar Alkamu, Abdulsalam Saleh, Suleiman Badamasi, Zaharadeen Mohammed, Musa Umar (alias “Small”), Mashkur Jamil, Suleiman Sani and Abubakar Usman — are facing a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy, armed robbery and murder.

HURIWA has also called on the hierarchies of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Nigerian Bar Association to send observers to attend the proceedings of the trial of the suspects given that the victim was both a lawyer and a journalist before her life was terminated by the activities of the notorious armed robbers that invaded her home.

By George Mgbeleke
Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has applauded the United States government for making good its plan to facilitate the presence in Nigeria of the American security forces to partner with their Nigerian counterpart in the counterterrorism operations to wipe out terrorists engaged in the massive killings of Nigerian citizens.

HURIWA averred that the U.S. Africa Command had announced that a small team of American forces has been deployed to Nigeria.

HURIWA recalled that Reuters reported on Tuesday night, February 3, that the deployment follows an agreement between the two countries to more effectively counter terrorist threats in West Africa. The report said the deployed team brings “unique capabilities from the United States.”
Nigeria’s Minister of Defense, Christopher Musa, has also confirmed the presence of the team but did not provide further details.
According to the report, the deployment of U.S. forces comes after pressure from Washington on the Nigerian government.
U.S. President Donald Trump had previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants in the country’s northwest.

HURIWA has however cautioned that the Defence minister should ensure that the military chiefs put out preemptive strategy to stop saboteurs embedded within the armed forces of Nigeria from leaking out intelligence shared with the Nigerian military by the United States forces to terrorists. “Nigerian security heads must root out undesirable elements within the armed forces that collude with terrorists and are in the habit of leaking out information and intelligence from the military to terrorists which mostly compromise the counterterrorism operations. If the activities of saboteurs aren’t minimised by Nigeria, then the United States forces may not trust us to maintain the partnership which is largely in our own interest.”

Besides, HURIWA has called out the heads of security and Intelligence institutions in Nigeria for abysmally failing to prevent the Tuesday’s bloody attacks on different communities in Kwara State by Islamic terrorists which culminated in the gruesome murder of over 40 citizens.

In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, HURIWA said it is disturbing and totally unacceptable that citizens are left to die in their numbers before the security forces are mobilise to the affected communities just as the group insisted that the repeated attacks on communities in Kwara State without the security forces and the intelligence community knowing about them and moving fast to prevent these bloody violence is reminiscent of a failed security and intelligence system.

“HURIWA is convinced that if the security forces alongside the intelligence community are efficient and effective, they ought to map up the flash points of possible infiltration by terrorists and then implement fool-proof measures to stop the attackers before they strike the communities. There is no doubt that the security forces are aware that terrorists who operate in Niger state could easily move into the nearest place outside their base if they are facing confrontation by the armed security forces of Nigeria.”

“We expect that the security and intelligence institutions should have contingencies and strategies in place that can very seamlessly be activated to prevent the incursions of terrorists from their place of operational dominance to safer places especially when the security forces are waging the counter insurgency and counter terrorism war. For the mere fact that this is not being done in Niger and also the ineffective deployment of technologies to combat terrorist attacks, shows a collapse of the security and intelligence system in Nigeria.”

HURIWA recalled that following the terrorists attacks in Woro and Nuku communities of Kaiama local government area of Kwara state, Tuesday evening, Soldiers and Forest Guards have taken over the communities, even as the death toll in the affected communities has risen to forty persons. But HURIWA condemned the belated reaction of the Nigerian security agencies as unfortunate and disappointing just as it expressed the opinion that if the intelligence community was up and doing and successfully generated intelligence about these terrorists, the bloodshed in Kwara state on Tuesday could have been avoided.

It has emerged that credible sources in the local government who spoke with journalists on condition of anonymity confirmed the development in an interview on Wednesday morning.
“The casualties are over Forty as we speak, and soldiers and Forest Guards have taken over the two communities. It’s such a very sad development at a time we think we are having peace from the bandits’ attacks of the past.” she said.
Recall that bandits in a renewed onslaught attacked two communities of Woro and Nuku in the Kaiama local government area of Kwara state on Tuesday evening.

HURIWA affirmed that the media claimed to have reliably gathered that many families lost their loved ones in the violent attack, while several houses were reportedly burnt by the hoodlums.
Credible sources stated that the terrorists from the neighbouring Niger state villages came to preach to residents in the two communities that they should jettison Nigeria constitution and embrace the Qur’an.

It was further gathered that the terrorists have been going around the neighbouring Niger state villages preaching the same before they infiltrated the affected communities in Kaima local government of Kwara state.

During the sermon,there were dissenting voices to the preaching which infuriated the bandits, prompting them to open gun shots attack on the congregation.

“The angry terrorists open attack indiscriminately on the congregation, and no fewer than forty residents of the two communities died; few of them escaped.
They should be preparing mass burial for them as we speak, “said the local source who pleaded not to be mentioned in print.

HURIWA has called for urgent restructuring of the leaderships of the police and the DSS in Kwara state so as to put up a much more efficient, result-oriented and effective commissioner of police and director of DSS even as HURIWA strongly condemns the failure of the Kwara state governor to put additional security measures in place to protect the residents of rural communities of the state from the continuous daring killings by terrorists. “How come this governor has done nothing to stop these incessant killings of his people?”