- Condemns hike in fuel, electricity tariffs, focus on interrogating Dr Mailafia
The United States (US)-Nigeria Law groups has expressed delight with the news of the imposition of visa sanctions on officials and individuals who have undermined Nigeria’s “electoral integrity, sabotaged our democracy and robbed Nigerian citizens of the God-given right to self-determination through free and fair elections.”
Emmanuel Ogebe, convener of the US-Nigeria Law Group, said that the visa sanctions “shows that the US followed through on its promises and our call for it to do so and confirms as did most observers the charade of shame that foisted a failed and lifeless regime back on a disillusioned citizenry for another dreadful four years.”
In July 2019, the US State Department announced the imposition of visa restrictions on Nigerians who undermined the February and March 2019 general elections.
On Monday, Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced the imposition of additional visa restrictions “on individuals for their actions surrounding the November 2019 Kogi and Bayelsa State elections and in the run up to the September and October 2020 Edo and Ondo State elections. These individuals have so far operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and have undermined democratic principles.”
Mr Ogebe, in the statement, said: “It is our hope that the principal beneficiary of the stolen mandates will also be subjected to the visa restrictions regardless of diplomatic passports.
“Further in our post-election report of 2019, we urged that University academics who acted fraudulently as electoral officers should be similarly banned from sabbaticals and fellowships abroad so as not to export their brand of brigandage outside the shores of Nigeria.
“We remind those who took power in Nigeria through a militarized and surreptitious coup against the will of the people that ultimately power belongs to God and that divine intervention can neither be rigged or appealed against. We urge further that it is not too late to make amends impending elections and in governance.”
The USNLG also condemned “the arbitrary rate hikes in fuel and electricity rates at a time when most of the civilized world is ameliorating conditions for citizens rather than worsening things for them. We similarly urge the US and allies to ban officials and persons who have justified, funded and otherwise enabled the anti-Christian genocide with impunity in Nigeria.
“Finally we condemn the continuing harassment of Dr Obadiah Mailafia for boldly mentioning the information available to him, and discernible by most, by the security services. Nigerian security forces should focus on the violent perpetrators and not on distinguished academics.
“Rather than interrogate Benue kidnap kingpin and confessed ex-Fulani militia operative ‘Gana’ when he surrendered, the security forces killed him. Yet he was the only one known to have publicly exposed the tri-state terror master plan of the killer herdsmen and the funding amongst others.
“Having intentionally silenced their greatest potential intelligence haul, they’re now straining an Oxford trained academic for intelligence which is nothing short of a travesty that hints at complicity.”
