Civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has asked the United States to redesignate Nigeria as a religious violator, noting that many contraventions of religious freedom are ongoing in the country.
The group faulted the removal of Nigeria from the list of “Countries of Particular Concern for having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a statement on Wednesday, blacklisted Russia, China and eight other countries as religious violators, leaving out Nigeria which was placed on the same list in 2020.
But HURIWA in a statement on Thursday titled, ‘Religious intolerance: HURIWA faults USA on delisting Nigeria under Buhari’, said “selective killings of religious worshippers based on their faith” are ongoing under the regime of the Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
HURIWA said, “It was wrong for the United States to adopt this provocative and ignorant decision even when Christians of Northern Nigerian extraction are killed by Moslem Fulani armed militia supported by officials working inside the office of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
It wondered the empirical evidence the USA used to delist Nigeria under Buhari from the list of global abusers of religious rights.
The rights group, therefore, asked Biden and the US Congress to change the decision immediately.
Credit: Punch