Buhari, UN, Amnesty condemn execution of aid workers by B/Haram

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the alleged execution of four aid workers by terrorists in North-Eastern Nigeria, saying the defeat of evil by good is inevitable, “no matter the pyrrhic victory evildoers seem to win.”

Similarly, The United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Edward Kallon, as well as Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria condemned the announced execution believed to have been carried out by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Friday.

According to a statement issued by in Abuja on Saturday by the Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Femi Adesina, Buhari felt saddened by the claimed development and commiserated with the family and loved ones of the aid workers, who he said had offered themselves to serve humanity at grave risk.

The statement recalled that the aid workers had been abducted near Damasak, Borno State, in July, and had been held, despite efforts to secure their release, till their alleged execution.

“Evil will always be defeated by good at the end of the day. Whatever seeming victory that evil records will eventually rebound on the evildoer. We are resolved to beat evil in this land, and we remain unrelenting till we achieve that,” President Buhari said.

He urged all insurgents, once again, to lay down their arms and rejoin “decent humanity.”

Kallon, n his response to the tragic occurrence, said: “I am deeply saddened and outraged by the news of the tragic killing of four aid workers who were held captive by armed groups for almost five months.

“My thoughts go to their families, friends and colleagues who are enduring unspeakable pains and hardship.”

The four men were among the six aid workers who were abducted on July 26 when their convoy came under attack near Damasak, Mobbar Council Area of Borno State.

“They were working on a health project implemented by the international non-governmental organisation (NGO), Action Against Hunger,” the envoy noted.

During the ambush, one of the drivers was killed while trying to get the team out of trouble, while another was reportedly executed on September 24.

“I plead for the immediate release of Grace Taku, the only woman who was in the team, and whose whereabouts remain unknown. I also call for the immediate release of Alice Loksha, a nurse and mother, who was abducted during an attack in Rann in March 2018.

Sadness rent the air on Friday when the world was alerted online that the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists executed four more aid workers and released a damning video to that effect.

The four male workers of Action Against Hunger were shot in cold blood.

Also condemning the killing, Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria said ISWAP had, again, demonstrated its brazen disregard for human lives.

In a statement, AI said “the four slain aid workers were providing desperately-needed humanitarian services to people affected by the conflict in the North-East.

“The killing is a war crime. Under international humanitarian, all aid workers must be protected from attack. ISWAP must immediately and unconditionally release the remaining aid workers,” it said.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria, on Saturday, remembered the slain members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) fours after the incident in Zaria.

The sect members had clashed with soldiers, following their blockade of Chief of Army Staff and his convoy who were on their way to an official event.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, AI lamented that “four years after the mass murder of over 350 supporters of IMN in Zaria, not a single person has been brought to justice by the Nigerian authorities.

“In fact, more than 150 more IMN members were subsequently killed in Kaduna, Jos, Bauchi, Sokoto, Funtua and Abuja.”

According to the organisation, one Fatima, whose husband and six sons were killed in Gyallesu, told it that her sons had received non life-threatening gunshot wounds on December 13, 2015, but they were subsequently deliberately killed by soldiers, while incapacitated.

“On December 13, 2015, there were lots of injured people in several rooms in Husainiyyah. There were dead bodies in a room and also in the courtyard. Around 12 to 1:00 p.m., soldiers threw grenades inside the compound that was full of women and children,” it said.

AI further alleged that after soldiers killed over 350 in between December 12 and 14, 2015, those killed were secretly buried in mass graves, days after the incidents.

“Between December 12 and 14, 2015 in Zaria, many women and girls told Amnesty International that when they arrested them, the soldiers forcibly removed their headscarves, a particularly distressing treatment for religiously conservative women, beat them and insulted them.

“Apart from the over 350 men, women and children the Nigerian Army killed, between December 12 and 14, 2015 in Zaria, dozens were left with life-long injuries and disabilities.

“All available information, including consistent accounts from witnesses and survivors from the confrontations at the two locations investigated by Amnesty International, indicate that the military used unlawful and excessive force against IMN supporters, killing hundreds.

“Senior medical personnel at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Teaching Hospital in Zaria told Amnesty International that in this two-day period, the hospital was ‘overwhelmed’ by the number of casualties received and that the military requisitioned areas around the hospital morgue.

“Amnesty International investigated the incidents which took place between December 12 and 14 at two locations in Zaria, around the Hussainiya and in Gyallesu neighbourhood, where most of the killings took place.

“Four months after the massacre in Zaria, Kaduna State authorities admitted on April 11, 2016 that they had secretly buried the bodies of 347 people in a mass grave, two days after the massacre.