(Intersociety, Onitsha Nigeria, 26th
of November 2016)-In the late evening of November 23rd, 2016,
the long awaited Special Report of Amnesty International; the world’s largest
and most respected rights body, was released from its London Headquarters, and
almost immediately after the release of the Report; the Nigerian Army
hurriedly, cheapishly and shamelessly
released a statement of denial and falsehood, reproduced below; bolded and italized:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S PLANNED
CAMPAIGN OF CALUMNY AGAINST THE NIGERIAN ARMY ON MASSOB/IPOB VIOLENT PROTESTS
IN THE SOUTH EAST NIGERIA BETWEEN AUGUST
2015 AND AUGUST 2016
The
attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a planned release of a report
by Amnesty International on an unfounded storyline of mass killings of
MASSOB/IPOB protesters by the military between August 2015 and August
2016. We wish to debunk the insinuation that our troops perpetrated the
killing of defenceless agitators. This is an outright attempt to tarnish the
reputation of the security forces in general and the Nigerian Army in
particular, for whatever inexplicable parochial reasons. For umpteenth
times, the Nigerian Army has informed the public about the heinous intent of
this Non-Governmental Organisation which is never relenting in dabbling into
our national security in manners that obliterate objectivity, fairness and simple
logic.
The
evidence of MASSOB/IPOB violent secessionist agitations is widely known across
the national and international domains. Their modus operandi has
continued to relish violence that threatens national security. Indeed
between August 2015 and August 2016, the groups’ violent protests have
manifested unimaginable atrocities to unhinge the reign of peace, security and
stability in several parts of the South East Nigeria.
A
number of persons from the settler communities that hailed from other parts of
the Country were selected for attack, killed and burnt. Such reign of
hate, terror and ethno-religious controversies that portend grave consequences
for national security have been averted severally through the responsiveness of
the Nigerian Army and members of the security agencies.
These
security agencies are always targeted for attack by the MASSOB/IPOB instruments
of barbarism and cruelty. For instance, in the protests of 30 – 31 May
2016, more than 5 personnel of the Nigeria Police were killed, while several
soldiers were wounded, Nigeria Police vehicles were burnt down same as several
others of the Nigerian Army that were vandalized.
The
strategic Niger Bridge at Onitsha came under threat thus leading to disruption
of socio-economic activities. In the aftermath of the encounter that
ensued between security agencies and MASSOB/IPOB militants many of own troops
sustained varying degrees of injury. In addition, the MASSOB/IPOB
recurrent use of firearms, crude weapons as well as other cocktails such as
acid and dynamites to cause mayhem remain a huge security threat across the
Region.
In
these circumstances, the Nigerian Army under its constitutional mandates for
Military Aid to Civil Authority (MACA) and Military Aid to Civil Powers (MACP)
has continued to act responsively in synergy with other security agencies to
de-escalate the series of MASSOB/IPOB violent protests.
Instructively,
the military and other security agencies exercised maximum restraints despite
the flurry of provocative and unjustifiable violence, which MASSOB/IPOB
perpetrated. The adherence to Rules of Engagement by the military has
been sacrosanct in all of these incidents.
Therefore,
it is rather unfortunate for the Amnesty International to allow itself to be
lured into this cheap and unpopular venture that aims to discredit the
undeniable professionalism as well as responsiveness of the Nigerian Army in
the discharge of its constitutional
roles.
Thank you for your usual cooperation.
Colonel Sani Kukasheka UsmanThank you for your usual cooperation.
Acting Director Army Public Relations
While
we gladly and unreservedly commend the authorities of the Amnesty
International-UK for their courage, in depth investigation and analysis and apt
findings concerning the Report; we wish to expressly state and hold that the
statement of the Nigerian Army, in which it shamelessly attempted to deny
culpability and grossly misrepresented facts of the matter; is totally
provocative, false, watery, unprofessional, crude, culpably homicidal, atrocious,
shameful, Jihadist and remorseless.
The
Army statement also falls far below or acutely short of the doctrines of modern
soldiering or military science; the international best practices in civilian
affairs handling styles as well as the Principles and Purposes of the United
Nations particularly protection and promotion of human rights and international
peace and security.
The
contents of the Army statement further depict unprofessionalism and grossly run
contrary to the Fundamental Rules of the International Law particularly the
“Ten Basic Standards of the International Law and Humanitarian Principles”;
containing strict guidelines for State actors in managing nonviolent (and even
riotous) assemblies; other than active armed rebellion against an independent
political territory recognized under the UN System.
Therefore,
having critically and expertly studied the Nigerian Army statement, the
leadership of International Society for
Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law; firmly finds contradictorily and
boldly states as follows:
1.
That the Nigerian Army of present
composition is Jihadist and ethnically biased in its operations and exercise of
its auxiliary securitization roles particularly as it concerns its genocidal
response to the peaceful and nonviolent processions and protests by members of
the Indigenous People of Biafra and other Pro Biafra campaigners as well as
those of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).
2.
That the Nigerian Army is a military
assemble dominated by promoters and perpetrators of ethnocide, religocide and genocide.
3.
That the Nigerian Army’s operational modes
are utterly vindictive, Yorean, hegemonic, crude, barbaric, murderous and
atrocious.
4.
That the Nigerian Army grossly and recklessly
adopts and uses via Presidential backing; operational death code of “treat
(including waste or kill) any Pro Biafra Campaigner as a terrorist, failed
coupist or insurrectionist with associated torturous and murderous sanctions
outside the law.
5.
That the Nigerian Army is engrossed in
falsehood and criminal spinning of alarming proportions.
6.
That the Nigerian Army brazenly and
wickedly corrupts and bastardizes the UN Principles of Rules of Engagement;
which are fundamentally embedded in the Geneva Conventions or Laws of War of
1949; which, in turn, originated from the three war (bellum) principles of Jus
Ad Bellum, Jus In Bellum and Jus Post Bellum.
7.
That the Nigerian Army’s constant reference
to use of “Rules of Engagement” in massacring unarmed and defenceless members
of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)
and unarmed and defenceless citizens exercising their regional and
international rights to Self Determination such as members of the Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) is a total
corruption and bastardization of the UN System’s Rules of Engagement; strictly
designed for internal and international armed conflicts as well as a
fundamental breach of the Fundamental Rules of the International Law under the
UN System.
8.
That under the UN System, no armed forces
of any member-State of the UN including the Nigerian Army are allowed to use
war-like weaponry and force to control or manage citizens’ street match
grievances; and where force is allowed at all, principles of Use of Force and
its Proportionality must be strictly applied at all times (i.e. firearms or
automatic weapons must not be used to disarm protesting citizens holding
catapults).
9.
That till date, there are no traces of
members of the IPOB taking up arms against the Federal Republic of Nigeria or
any part thereof.
10.
That till date, no concrete evidence has
been produced by the Federal Government empirically showing that members of
IPOB have engaged in bombing of any government or public facility or killing of
soldiers and other members of the security forces in battle fields.
11.
That till date, no battle fields whether
active or passive have been identified and linked to members of the IPOB.
12.
That till date, no member of IPOB dead or
alive has been linked by any branch of the Nigerian security forces; with
provable evidence; to culpable homicide or murder of any innocent Nigerian
citizen.
13.
That almost all the street protests
embarked upon by members of IPOB since July/August 2015 have been devoid of
violence; particularly at the beginning of the protests and where any violent
rarely erupted; it most likely occurred on account of rare expression of angers
and frustrations by the surviving peaceful protesters over the unprovoked
shooting and killing of their unarmed and defenceless colleagues by soldiers
and other members of the security forces.
14.
That the host State Governments in the
protesting areas, in conjunction with killer-security agents have on several
occasions, attempted to plant violence into the peaceful protests so as to find
grounds to unleash deadly State violence on the Pro Biafra peaceful protesters;
and in some cases; some police personnel were found to have been used as
sacrificial lambs by their operational commanders during the peaceful protests
by being collaterally shot so as to portray IPOB as a violent or militant group.
15.
That where such unfortunate police officers
rarely met the wrath of provoked and retreating peaceful protesters by way of clubbing or fist
cuff wounds, they most likely got shot under in-service circumstances so as to
blame it on IPOB and its leadership and portray same as “Armed Independent
People of Biafra” (Retired IGP Solomon Arase, June 2016).
16.
That the use of Biafra Flags, Chaplets and
Holy Bibles during IPOB street protests or Church Vigils or School Compound
Singing and Praying can never be translated or interpreted to mean “use of
firearms”, “dynamites” or “raw acids”.
17.
That conversely, there were provable
evidence that it was soldiers that used raw acids and machetes against the
unarmed and defenceless Pro Biafra Campaigners particularly during the 9th
of February 2016 IPOB singing and prayer
procession inside the National High School in Aba as well as the 29th
and 30th of May 2016 World Igbo/Biafra Heroes Day at Nkpor and its
environs.
18.
That further attestation to the fact that
Pro Biafra Campaigners particularly members of IPOB have remained nonviolent
and a non-armed opposition group could be seen in the nine-count criminal
charges preferred by the Federal Government against Citizen Nnamdi Kanu and
three others before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
19.
That in the whole charges none of them is
charged with evidence generated murder or manslaughter, or rape, or armed
uprising or active terrorism; and that in the case of Engineer Chidiebere
Onwudiwe who was charged with “terrorism”; the accusation to the effect that he
was “caught in Enugu researching on how to make Improvise Explosive Devices
(IEDs)”, will legally take the second coming of Jesus Christ for it to
convictably proved.
20.
That in the case of Mr. Benjamin Madubugwu,
who was charged with “unlawful possession of firearms (Pump Action Gun)”; the
“Pump Action Gun(s)” is categorized under the Firearms Act of 2004 as “non
prohibited firearms” (i.e. it can be possessed by any citizen with a valid license).
21.
That the Nigerian Army and other culpable
security agencies in the butchery of at least 250 Pro Biafra Campaigners have
no iota of defense or justification for heinously perpetrating the mass-murder with
reckless abandon in about eight different locations between July/August 2015
and May 2016.
22.
That their attempts to “manufacture or
plant group violence” to escape their deadly culpabilities have failed woefully;
locally, regionally and internationally.
23.
That these explain desperation of the
Buhari Administration and its killer-security forces, leading to seemed
unleashing of both physical and psychological threats on the authorities of the
Amnesty International in Nigeria so as to scare them from releasing the Special
Report in Nigeria; forcing them to change its release venue from Nigeria to UK,
as was the case three days ago.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of
Law (Intersociety)
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Obianuju Igboeli, Esq.
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348180771506
Chinwe Umeche, Esq.
Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Mobile Line: +2347013238673
0 comments so far,add yours