Scores of Biafra Activists killed by Nigerian Soldiers dumped in a morturary discouvered
Following intensification of falsehood,
propaganda and evidence destruction by leaderships of the Nigerian Army
and the Nigeria Police Force under statutorily retired but
cabalistically retained Lt General Turkur Buratai and retiring IGP
Solomon Arase respectively; over mass shooting, maiming and killing of
dozens of unarmed, non violent and innocent IPOB/pro Biafra activists
and their supporters across the Southeast of Nigeria as ordered by the
duo recently, the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has
resolved again to bring to the attention of all Nigerians and members
of the international community including all international rights and
media groups the irrefutable, un-concocted and shocking evidence of how
jubilant and unarmed IPOB/pro Biafra activists, in their dozens, were
shot at close range, maimed, abducted, murdered and dumped at the
Anambra State Government owned Onitsha General Hospital by soldiers of
the Onitsha Military Cantonment, headed by Col Issah Abdullahi.
As a research and grassroots oriented
rights organization in Nigeria, located at the heart of the Niger and
Southeast of the country, we are appalled and saddened at all times
reading and listening to lies or falsehoods of intensified magnitude
dish out on daily basis by the military and the police authorities in
the country as reasons for their actions or omissions to act in the
dastardly act. The worst of it all is that the present Federal
Government of Nigeria’s official policy is quadrupled into: repression, violence, falsehood and propaganda. It
already appears that the federally ruling party’s propaganda czar; Mr.
Lai Mohammed, has exhausted stockpiles of lies or falsehood and
propaganda in his party’s information warfare and warehouse and ordered
for more containers-load from the Middle East and other troubled Africa
countries and failed States.
The likes of retiring IGP Solomon Arase
and his army counterpart, have lied over their ignoble roles in the
dastardly act, to the extent of getting exhausted in the business of
lying. The retiring IGP appears to have given up to lying and resort to
reckless issuance of threats to use mass violence against unarmed and
defenseless Nigerians. Some Say that he has now resorted to unholy exit strategy
for the futile purpose of circumventing his gloomy post retirement life
within and outside the country, following speedy and steady ticking of
his exit clock. The Buratai led army authorities, on their part, now go
on rampage in evidence destruction and remedial makeshifts including use
of psychological violence, physical intimidation, material evidence
destruction, unfounded and trumped up accusation, arbitrary arrest and
illegal detention, image laundering through hiring or partnership with
conformist civil society groups, warped excuses and justifications of
their grievous rights abuses and establishment of fire brigade approach,
called-civil-military relation or human rights desk, all
geared toward escaping culpability particularly in the eyes of
international law and humanitarian principles etc. As we speak, for
instance, no reasonable person can say for certainty whether maimed,
battered, lacerated and detained Nigerian Shiite Muslim leader, Sheik
Ibrahim Zaky El-Zaky, is still alive or dead following his over 90 days
of solitary incarceration in the hands of coercive agencies of the
Federal Government of Nigeria.
Nigeria As A Rogue State Party Under International Law & UN System:
Nigeria’s international obligations are speedily and steadily
endangered or threatened. This is because its conducts under discussion
are fundamentally affront to the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations; defined in Articles 1 and 2 of the UN Establishment Charter of 1945 as: “the
maintenance of international peace and security; respect for the equal
rights and self determination of the peoples; international cooperation
in economic, social, cultural and humanitarian matters, and the
promotion of human rights for all without distinction”.
Failure or omission to adhere to these purposes and principles of the UN
by any member-State particularly the Federal Government of Nigeria is
inexcusable and considered a serious threat to international peace and
security.
According to Professor Thomas Hobbes, “the
sovereignty of a State is no longer absolute. It is now challenged and
kept live in the ability of the State to provide for the general
wellbeing of her citizens (i.e. security and welfare)”.
This is now commonly called “sovereignty as a responsibility or
citizens’ sovereignty”. The State of Nigeria as presently constituted is
steadily failing to live up to these expectations and sacred
responsibilities. Turning State’s guns against its unarmed and
nonviolent citizens are inexcusable crimes against humanity and a
fundamental breach to the purposes and principles of the United Nations
as well as the basic standards of the international law and humanitarian
principles. Crimes Against Humanity are expressly and unambiguously defined by the UN and the International Criminal Law as “murder,
extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts
committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or
persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in the execution
of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the UN or
any of its recognized criminal courts, whether or not in violation of
domestic laws of the country where perpetrated”.
Under the International Law & the Humanitarian Principles, Nigeria as a member of the UN is mandatorily obligated to adhere strictly to the ten basic or fundamental standards of its International Law and Humanitarian Principles, which are as follows: (1) everyone
is or shall be entitled to equal protection of the law and protection
from violence and threats and member-State shall ensure this; (2)
member-State shall treat all victims of crime with compassion and
respect and ensure protection of their safety and privacy; (3)
member-State shall not use force on its citizens except when strictly
necessary and proportionally and minimally necessitated; (4)
member-State shall avoid use of force when policing unlawful but
nonviolent assemblies; (5) member-State shall not use force except
strictly for self defense and protection of others (i.e. handling riots
and violent mob actions); (6) member-State shall arrest nobody unless
there are legal grounds to do so and ensure it is done in line with
lawful procedures; (7) member-State shall ensure that all detainees have
access promptly after their arrest to their families, lawyers and
medical assistance; (8) member-State shall ensure that all detainees are
treated humanely; and further ensure that it does not instigate or
inflict torture or tolerate any act of torture or ill treatment and its
coercive agents holding detainees must refuse to obey any order to
inflict torture on their detainees.
Others are: (9) Coercive
agents of member-State concerned must not carry out order or cover up
extra judicial executions or disappearances and refuse any order to do
so; and (10) such concerned coercive agents of the member-State shall
report all breaches of those basic standards to their superior officers
and to the office of the Public Prosecutor and ensure they are fully
investigated”. We invite all Nigerians and members of the
international community to compare and contrast these international
provisions willingly acceded to by Nigeria as a member of the United
Nations and the dastardly act of opening fire, maiming and massacre of
dozens of unarmed and nonviolent Nigerians in the streets and perimeter
fenced school grounds.
Our questions to Lt Generals Turkur
Buratai and Gabriel Olanisakin; and retiring IGP Solom Arase and their
culpable sub commanders and subordinates are: Does opening
of fire and massacring of dozens of jubilant IPOB/pro Biafra activists
singing and dancing at the Onitsha Niger Bridgehead over court ordered
release of their leader amount to armed rebellion or mass violence and
wanton destruction of public properties warranting deployment of crude
State violence? How, too, does opening of fire and massacring of dozens
of unarmed and nonviolent IPOB/pro Biafra activists assembled peacefully
at a public secondary school field with perimeter fencing for the
purpose of praying for the release of their leader (Nnamdi
Kanu-POC)amount to armed rebellion or mass violence or insurrection
warranting the unleashing of crude State violence?
Breaches of the basic standards of the International Law and Humanitarian Principles and the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations by
any member-State are considered by the UN and its Security Council as a
serious threat to international peace and security and such breaches
attract against such errant member-State coercive or non coercive humanitarian interventions and
severe consequences. The United Nations had also in 1996 expanded
“threats to international peace and security” to include “(1)
extreme or complex humanitarian emergencies occasioned by gross human
rights abuses by State or non State actors; (2) internal violence or
armed conflict; and (3) disruption of democracy”.
This was in response to explosion, after
the cold war, of intra-State violent conflicts and reckless abandon
with which State actors particularly in Africa, internally suppress and
massacre hundreds of thousands of their unarmed and innocent nationals
or non combatants mostly in peace times in pursuance of repressive and
discriminatory State policies particularly personal and structural
violence based on prohibitive and annihilative social, economic and
cultural policies. With these innovative changes at the international
community, the absolutist State sovereignty was tamed and made flexible and era of impunity for regime crimes trounced.
The detailed analysis above is to educate the likes of Lt Gen Turkur Buratai and retiring IGP Solomon Arase that immunity within borders is not timeless and immunity across the borders has
no place in the lexicon of international community. They can tell all
the lies on earth while hanging on their uniforms but once their uniform immunities (if any) elapse,
the international law as it is and as it ought to be shall command them
to account for their actions and conducts while in office. The fate of
Charles Taylor and Laurent Gbagbo send clear messages to other regime criminals that there is no hiding place for them.
We had earlier reported, grounded in
facts and figures that the leaderships of the Nigerian Army and the
Nigeria Police Force under Lt Gen Turkur Buratai and IGP Solomon Arase
had between August 2015 and 9th of February 2016 jointly
opened fire at close range on unarmed and non violent IPOB/pro Biafra
activists, leading to the instant killing of over 80 of them and maiming
of over 170 others. Hundreds of them have also been arrested across the
country by the Nigeria Police Force and arraigned with unfounded,
politically motivated and ill conceived felonies carrying as much as
death penalty and life imprisonment on judicial conviction commonly
under kangaroo circumstances.
The two senior security heads’
culpabilities stem from their widely published operational statements
authorizing their sub commanders and subordinates to “use maximum force
and other means available” to respond to nonviolent and peaceful
processions, matches, prayers and street protests embarked upon by
millions of IPOB/pro Biafra activists and their supporters across the
Southeast and the South-south Nigeria. Each time their murderous orders
are carried out by their subordinates, they storm public arenas and
announce rewards for such “gallant” officers. Such rewards include
promotions and other in-kind gifts or recognitions. They are also
individually culpable on account of their refusal or omission to act to
bring perpetrators to book; in other words, they also aid and abet.
In the second part of this statement, we
shall furnish all Nigerians and members of the international community
including all the international rights and media groups the detailed
statistics concerning the Butchery Across the Niger
perpetrated by soldiers of the Onitsha Military Cantonment, commanded
by Col Issah Abdullahi, under the chief security watch of the Government
of Anambra State led by Mr. Willie Obiano. In the entire shooting,
maiming and killing, five locations are associated with those shot and
maimed. They are (1) Onitsha, (2) Asaba, (3) Enugu, (4) Aba and (5)
Igweocha (in Rivers State). Three locations, on the other hand, are
associated with shooting and killing. They are (1) Onitsha (1 &2),
(2) Aba (1, 2 & 3) and (3) Igweocha (Rivers State).
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