JTF imprisons an eight month old Ogoni baby

Nigeria Child Abuse News:

JTF imprisons an eight month old Ogoni baby

MOSOP President /Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo says the Nigerian authorities have committed a classic violation of the Right of the Child under international law.

Dr. Diigbo today expressed deep concern over continuing detention of an eight-month old baby, Ms. Gloria Adorbu and the nursing mother, Ms. Ewonu Info Ndorbu, and another family member – 16-year-old Ms. Ewonu Adorbu, all of Ogoni origin and demanded for their immediate release.

The baby and mother are being detained by the Joint Task Force – Pulo Shield Operations, at a military camp in Port Harcourt, in great discomfort at a location about 74 kilometers away from their home in Teyork, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Diigbo received report from eyewitnesses who said that there was a loud bang on their door as their house was broken into at 6am on the 19th of January, 2012 and taken away at gunpoint. Diigbo maintained that detaining obviously innocent persons was insensible, inhuman, unjust and punitive.

Diigbo said he is also concerned about the current military rampage in Ogoni, particularly Teyork, his place of birth; pointing out the situation represented a worrying abuse of power, violation of fundamental human rights and a contravention of the Right of the Child as well as the turning the JTF into a Political Police Force (PPF).

Diigbo said MOSOP fully supports every diligent and non-political effort to fish out offenders, saying that the current trend amounts to general criminalization of the entire Ogoni population, particularly the youth; under the pretext of searching for suspected criminals.

Diigbo urged the United Nations system and President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria to do everything possible to protect the Right of the Child and end the rising tension in Ogoni that can result to a breach of the peace.

JTF is said to be investigating crimes relating to one kidnapping of a woman and the killing of an army officer.

Dr. Diigbo said crime investigators should employ the cooperation and support of law-abiding citizens in sensitive ways to apprehend suspects, instead to use terror and bias against the innocent population.

“The Nigeria Police Force,” Diigbo maintained, “should be fully trained, well equipped and given livable wages to replace the JTF and to competently carry out investigation of crimes in a more disciplined and professional manner to promote effective and efficient administration of justice.

“I am deeply concerned that the JTF has turned into a “Political Police” in Nigeria, and should be sent out of Ogoni. The JTF reminds the Ogoni people of the military Nigerian government/Royal Dutch Shell Internal Security Task Force of the 1990s, whose activities led to the hanging of nine Ogoni activists, including the founder of MOSOP, late Ken Saro,” he remarked.

This is part of the preliminary horrifying details of the account of Joint Task Force (JTF) invasion of Teyork on two separate occasions – 17th January and 19th January of 2012.

© Scoop Media