The House of Representatives has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend Operation Positive Identification being planned by the Nigerian Army.
The House of Representatives has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend Operation Positive Identification being planned by the Nigerian Army. Several members of the House, who spoke on a motion by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, condemned the operation as anti-people which allegedly posed threats to human rights.
The Army had last month said it planned Operation Positive Identification in the North-East to flush out Boko Haram insurgents. But later on September 25, it said the exercise would be extended to other parts of the country. It stated the exercise would enable soldiers to accost citizens on the streets or roads and ask them to produce a means of identification. It said the exercise would check bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, ethnic militia, cattle rustlers, as well as other sundry criminals across the various regions of the country.
But in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, lawmakers unanimously resolved that that the Nigerian Army should develop “a pro-people strategy in confronting our security challenges instead of measures that would further victimise the people.” They also urged the President, being the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to “review the situation and stop the Army from commencing the planned operation scheduled to begin on November 1, 2019, to make way for further consultations.”
Moving the motion, Elumelu said the OPI would downgrade Nigerians to suspects and in fact conquered persons in their country, thereby stripping them of their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of movement. According to the Minority Leader, the operation is a recipe for possible militarisation of Nigeria. He warned that the nationwide operation would also amount to an “indirect imposition of a state of emergency across the country by the Army.
Elumelu said military operations that had direct contact and regulation of civilians could result in abuses and serious safety issues, especially at this time the nation is battling with the scourge of victimisation and extrajudicial killings. He said the planned implementation of OPI across the nation would rather worsen the security situation in the country.
A member, Ahmadu Jaha, criticised the security chiefs for the multiple code-named military operations across the country. Jaha said, “I will like to emphasise that if our security chiefs are out of ideas, they should let Nigerians know about that so that they can voluntarily give way for other people who have new ideas on how to fight insecurity in this country.
