Rights Group Demands Tinubu Withdraws Defence Minister from APC Politics After Terrorists Threaten Infant
Human rights groups have expressed outrage following the emergence of a disturbing viral video showing a young family, including a three-month-old infant, being threatened by heavily armed terrorists in a Kaduna forest.
The victims—identified as Ahmed Zakka, a local car dealer, his wife, and their toddler—were violently abducted from their residence in the Millennium City area of Kaduna metropolis.
In the graphic footage, the distraught father is seen holding his uncontrollably weeping baby alongside his visibly dehumanised wife. Together, they made a desperate plea to the Federal Government and the Nigerian public to secure their release.
Civil Rights Group Demands Immediate Rescue
Reacting swiftly, a pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), is asking the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (rtd), to immediately mobilise the nation’s entire defence architecture to rescue the Zakka family.
The group further extended the demand to all military service chiefs, the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), the Inspector General of Police (IGP), and the National Security Adviser (NSA).
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.
HURIWA called for a strategic joint security operation to rescue the Zakka family and over 2,000 other Nigerian citizens currently held in terrorist camps across the country.
“The video of this captured, tortured, and mistreated baby should pinch the consciences of political office holders in Nigeria to prioritise the security and well-being of citizens far above partisan considerations,” Onwubiko stated.
Defence Ministers Blamed for ‘Partisan Distractions’
In a scathing critique of the current administration, HURIWA demanded that President Bola Tinubu immediately relieve General Christopher Musa and the Minister of State for Defence, Senator Bello Matawalle, from their roles within the ruling party’s Presidential Campaign Council.
The rights group argued that it is a “massive disservice” to burden the nation’s two primary defence supervisors with partisan political commitments while Nigeria faces an all-out war from armed non-state actors and genocidal killers.
Pointing out the irony of the situation, HURIWA noted that the jungle where the family is being held is located within Kaduna State—the direct homestead of the Defence Minister himself.
“How does the Minister of Defence feel attending the inauguration of the expanded Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) when terrorists have continuously kidnapped citizens from his own home state?” the group questioned.
A ‘House on Fire’
HURIWA reminded President Tinubu of his primary constitutional obligation to secure the lives and property of Nigerian citizens. The association concluded that the administration’s current focus on re-election campaigns amidst deteriorating security represents a massive failure of governance.
“It appears that President Tinubu is a man whose house is literally on fire, but he is busy chasing rats,” the statement concluded, reiterating that the call was a compassionate appeal to save an innocent child and its parents before it is too late.
