Reps reject motion on arrest of northerners in Abia

Some members of the House of Representatives yesterday rejected a motion that sought to investigate and put a stop to the series of arrests of northerners by soldiers in Abia State.

The motion which came under matter of urgent national importance and sponsored by Rep Aminu Suleiman (APC, Kano) suffered a setback when put to vote for consideration.
Rep Hussein Namadi (PDP, Jigawa) seconded it.

But when Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha put the question to vote consideration, only few voices were heard supporting it, while majority of the lawmakers who are from the south east shouted ‘nay!’
But our reporter observed that Ihedioha had subjected an earlier motion on a collapsed bridge in the south east to voting twice.
It was further observed that after Suleiman’s motion was killed on first voting, another motion on checking activities of smugglers, which was listed on the order paper, was subjected to voting twice.
Daily Trust reports that 486 northern traders were arrested in Abia State last month, with some of them released after weeks in detention following outcries by some northern governors. Another arrest took place on Monday in same Abia State when heavily-armed soldiers raided some mosques and markets operated by northerners and arrested an Imam, his assistant and three others, alleging that they were suspected Boko Haram members. Rep Suleiman told Daily Trust after plenary yesterday said he was not happy with the way the motion was killed by his colleagues, saying it is a dangerous precedence they set for the country.

“You cannot use the excuse of the insurgency to place a particular ethnic group, people or region on security spotlight. It is nonsensical and unacceptable,” he said.
He said: “This is a process that is capable of setting ethnic group against one another and where this is predominant is in the south-east. That is what I had wanted to read and as you know, the people that travelled a lot in this country are the south-easterners. If some people try to apply reprisal; it will be too bad for the country.”

The lawmaker, who noted that the series of arrests showed that every northerner is a potential Boko Haram suspect, cautioned that “if this is the theory, it then means that every south-easterner is a potential kidnapper and a ritual killer. Whoever holds this view will also not be fair to south-easterners.”

While appealing to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene on the matter, the lawmaker said the president’s silence “speaks volumes,” adding that “even the American government gives visas to Afghan people, where Taliban represents an average Afghanistan; they still allow them to move freely in America without any hindrance, why treat Nigerians in their own country to this inhuman treatment?”