A COMMUNITY IN BENUE STATE PETITIONS NHRC OVER HARRASMENT BY SSS

The Benue community in Osun State has raised the alarm over alleged harassment and threat to life from an operative of the State Security Service in the state (name withheld).

The community leaders who visited PUNCH office in Osogbo, on Friday, made available a petition written to the National Human Right Commission. In the petition, the community listed the atrocities committed by the SSS official against leaders of the Benue community residing in the st
ate.

Other leaders in the entourage of the Tyoor-U-Tiv/ Chairman, Benue Community in Osun State, Chief Augustine Tsor, on the visit are; Benue Community Head in Odo Otin area of the state, Chief Nicodemus Shatyou; Treasurer, Mdzough Tiv, Osun State, Sati Akenda.

The petition addressed to the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, was signed by Tsor.

The leaders had also through a human rights group known as Justice Now Foundation petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 11, Osogbo, on the alleged harassment from the SSS official.

The Administrative Secretary of JNF, Mr. Adebayo Bello, told the police that Benue people might be forced to fight back if the SSS official was not called to order.

The community leaders alleged that the SSS official, who is an indigene of Benue State, had turned himself to a political leader and a kingmaker in the community and he was using his position to cause crisis among members of the community.

The petition read in part, “I am faced with a leadership tussle among my Tiv community since my emergence as the Tyoor-U-Tiv/ Chairman, Benue Community in Osun State. The key actor in this crisis is ( the SSS official) who is using his position as an operative of the Department of State Security Service to instigate the Tiv people in Osun State to cause trouble.

“He is doing this because I have refused to allow him to fraudulently use my status to extort and exploit my people for his personal interest. It is unprofessional and unbecoming of him to use his position as a security official to violate our human rights and threatening our lives in a place where he is supposed to be our keeper.”

PUNCH NEWS.