Eight civil society organizations have called for
the arrest and prosecution of Mr. Shaaba Lafiagi,
a senator representing Kwara State, for the
alleged extra-judicial killing of four of the
students protesting against the shoddy
representation has provided for his constituents.
The four young men were shot dead by soldiers
attached to Mr. Lafiagi on Friday.
The rights groups made their demand in a
statement jointly signed by their leaders.
Among the signatories were Messrs. Charles
Ofemi of Kwara Youth Stakeholders Forum,
Abdulrazak Hamzat of Kwara Must Change,
Ibrahim Garba Wala of Citizens Action To Take
Back Nigeria and Idris Ahmed of Citizens United
for Peace and Security. Others were Ahmed
Buhari of Cabal Must Go, Miriam Yakubu of Be
The Change Organization, Olatunji Yusuf of
Legacy Must Change and Daniel Seun of Citizens
of Impact.
According to the statement the deceased were
killed during a peaceful protest against the poor
quality of representation Mr. Lafiagi has
provided.
"The reprehensible occurrence, which led to the
brutal execution of defenseless, unarmed and
peaceful protesters happened as a result of high
level irresponsibility, rascality and lack of
maturity, which propelled Senator Muhammed
Shaa’aba Lafiagi to order soldiers to execute
protesting youths, who were merely expressing
their disaffection with the senator’s lack of
proper representation of the people," the groups
said.
While condemning the development, the groups
stated that the protesters were well within their
rights to express their displeasure in a peaceful
manner.
"For many years, the main road that leads into
Lafiagi town has been in a very bad state. It was
not motorable for quite some time. This includes
a dilapidated culvert at Sobo. In order to fix this
problem that has clearly affected the economy
and mobility of the good people of Lafiagi town,
the patriotic youths of the town mobilized
financial resources and fixed half of the road.
"When the Senator showed up with his
entourage on Friday, the youths stopped his
convoy and asked him to own up to his
responsibility by fixing the remaining half.
Instead of placating the youths by showing
maturity and leadership, the bloodthirsty Senator
Mohammed Sha'aba Lafiagi called upon
trigger happy soldiers, who opened fire on the
peaceful demonstrators," the groups recalled.
They stated that the lawmaker has become a law
breaker and must not escape from the wrath of
the law, as the killing was a needless waste of
human life. In addition, the rights groups
reasoned that it is because of the presence of
tyrants like Mr. Lafiagi in the federal legislature
that no laws will be made for the benefit of the
masses.
"In view of this unfortunate situation, we the
undersigned Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
aver that the days of impunity and extra-judicial
killings are well and truly over in Nigeria and we
therefore demand that the Inspector General of
Police, as a matter of urgency, order the arrest
and prosecution of Senator Lafiagi and his
trigger happy soldiers within two weeks, else we
will call for civil action against the politicians in
National Assembly.