The subcommittee of the United States congress for Africa has taken the Trump administration to task on what they are doing about the human rights abuses and the Federal Government clampdown on the opposition during the run up to the 2019 elections. The subcommittee, which oversees Human rights, Global Health, and International Organizations frowned at the US government responses to happening in Nigeria, citing reports from Vanguard Newspapers and Premium Times, representing the main stream and online media.
During a hearing on Nigeria earlier this month, which was titled “Nigeria at a Crossroads:The Upcoming Elections” they made reference to reports of the freezing of Accounts of Vice Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the raid on the house of Atiku’s son’s house. The Chairman of the committee, Chris Smith, had said that he is in possession of a memo by the Nigerian Embassy targeting Human rights Lawyer for testifying against them. he therefore wondered whether the Trump administration has engaged Nigeria on these issues, and if so, whether it is just to hold contrary views.
A Washington based Human Rights Lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, had submitted a letter to the United States state department accusing the Nigerian Embassy in Washington of attempted subversion of the US Congress through witness intimidation.
Senate President Bukola Saraki was present at the Hearing.
During the hearing, the Assistant Secretary of state of the US insisted that more farmers have been murdered than the Herdsmen in Nigeria, thereby lending credence to opposition groups who claim the herdsmen activities borders on ethnic cleansing.
In a similar development, the British House of Lords took the Theresa May government to task on what it is doing concerning the status of Leah Sharibu, kidnapped among other Dapchi girls but yet to be released by Boko Haram. About two years ago, Britain had raised alarm that the Buhari government has been using anti graft agencies to harass and intimidate the opposition while protecting members of the ruling party. Recently, EFCC had paraded two people who allegedly had large cache of dollars, but the Union bank had claimed that the money is theirs and that there is no crime committed. Some opposition party members have insisted that the vice presidential candidate of the PDP may have been the target.only recently, former Airforce boss, Alexander Badeh was murdered in controversial circumstances.
Last month, governments of the European Union, US, Uk and others signed an agreement to monitor the elections in Nigeria. Signatories to the agreement include the European Union delegation to Nigeria, France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden.
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