By Ihechi Enyinnaya
At least 12 members of the United States Congress have written to urging Secretary of State, Blinken, urging him to reverse the delisting of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious persecution.
A statement by Human Rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, commended the members, saying the delisting, gives Nigeria “license to kill.”
He said: “I thank the dozen congressmen and women of the US Congress who took the bold step of calling out the US Secretary of State for his ill-advised removal of Nigeria from the religious persecution list.
“Probably no policy position of the US government on Nigeria has attracted more universal condemnation than this. Indeed, the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom took the rare step of condemning a a fellow US government office – the U.S. State Department.
“Even members of the British House of Lords in the U.K. have similarly lampooned Secretary Blinken’s actions as have NGOs all over US, Europe and Nigeria.
“The action was baseless and amounts to voodoo diplomacy as even my during my latest visit to Nigeria last week, over a dozen muslim worshippers were reportedly killed and women raped in mosques while dozens of hapless people were burnt alive in cars.
“Similarly in addition to the failure of most states to complete their own #EndSARs investigations, even Lagos state that was hailed for exposing the truth of the Lekki massacre has now backpedaled and shot itself in the foot by denying that there was indeed a massacre.
“Accordingly Secretary Blinken is urged to rethink the license to kill given to Nigeria especially as we mark the 5th anniversary of the Shiites massacre in Kaduna state. It is not too late to get it right, and Blinken owes it to humanity and himself not to screw up again this year.”