A Press Briefing On: 68th Anniversary Of The Universal
Declaration Of Human Rights 2016
Silent
Genocide In Nigeria: 101,500 Defenseless Citizens Killed Outside The Law Since
1999 (17yrs) With 47,500 In Five Years And 9,700 Under Buhari Administration
(Intersociety/SBCHROs,
Onitsha Nigeria, Sunday, 11th December 2016)-This month marks the 68th
Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), as set aside
by the United Nations. Originally, 10th of December of every year is
set aside globally as a UDHR Day. The UDHR is a bill of rights for all mankind, proclaimed by the UN General
Assembly on 10th of December 1948 and designed for current world
population of over seven billion people and their institutions and 193-member
States of the UN as well as some 45 local and international trusteeship and
occupied territories around the world.
This year’s UDHR event taking place here is unique
in that it is the first time the SBCHROs under the coordination of
International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, is marking it
with a press briefing for the purpose of presenting to all Nigerians and
members of the international community the state
of unlawful or criminal killings in Nigeria since the country returned to
civil rule in June 1999; with the bulk of research and information concerning
this coming from Intersociety. We are deeply grateful to Intersociety for
allowing us to tap and share with it its rich facts and information resource.
As a matter of fact, Ladies and Gentlemen of the
Media, Nigeria’s human rights records have soured and deteriorated steadily
over the years, earning their worse status under the present Buhari
Administration. Below is the apt summary of the Nigeria’s
human rights problems, according to the US Department of State Reports on the
State of Human Rights in Nigeria including its reports of 2009 and 2015:
“Deplorable human rights in Nigeria included the abridgement of citizens’ right to
change their government; politically motivated and extra-judicial killings by
security forces, including summary executions, vigilante killings, abductions
by militant groups, torture, rape and other cruel, in-human or degrading
treatment of prisoners, detainees and criminal suspects; hash and
life-threatening detention center conditions; arbitrary arrest and prolonged
pre-trial detention, denial of fair public trial, executive influence on
judiciary and judicial corruption; infringement of privacy rights; restrictions
on freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, and movement; official
corruption and impunity; domestic violence and discrimination against women;
the killing of women suspected of witchcraft; female genital mutilation; child
abuse and child sexual exploitation; societal violence; ethnic regional and
religious discrimination, trafficking in persons for the purpose of
prostitution and forced labour; discrimination against persons with disabilities;
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; and child
labour”.
In the
consideration of the patterns and trends of these rights abuses, it is found
that their perpetration comes from State
and non State actors. While rights abuses such as political assassination
and election killings have recorded a decrease since 2011, State actor heinous
rights abuses like State murders or killings have gone spiral from their lower
ebb between June 2007 and June 2015.
The high
political terror, militarization and militarism policies of the Buhari
Administration have also led to emergence of at least 18 armed opposition
groups and upsurge in the inflow of illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons
(SALWs) in non State actor hands; rising to all time high of 5million in 2016
on average of a SALW per 40 citizens (Intersociety 2016).
101, 500 Killed Outside The Law In 17yrs: Killing outside the law is the act of taking a citizen’s life using processes and
procedures not recognized by law (i.e. 1999 Constitution, regional and
international rights conventions and laws) and it includes citizens taking into
detention custodies alive but killed while being held, road killings associated
with extortion and minor infractions, killing of unarmed and defenceless
citizens engaging in church vigil and streets protest and processions; election
day killings, military invasion and massacre of unarmed and defenceless
villagers; raiding and killing by
security forces of unarmed and defenceless citizens in their homes, churches,
mosques and markets; any form of killing of civilians or non combatants by
armed opposition groups in war and peace times; killings arising from
inter-communal and religious violence particularly as they concern uninvolved
or innocent and defenceless citizens; and culpable or inexcusable homicides.
Earlier Statistics: On 11th of December 2011, our coordinating partner-Intersociety found in its report
(Nigeria In A State Of War: How 54,000 Citizens Were Killed Outside The Law
Since 1999); drawn from its extensive investigation and other open and closed
sources that not less than 54,000 Nigerian citizens were killed outside the law
between June 1999 and December 2011. The breakdown showed that vigilante
killings accounted for not less than 11,500 deaths between 1998 and
2002; including not less than 5,000 in Anambra State and 3500 in Abia State via
OTA and Bakassi Boys and 1500 in Lagos via O’odua People’s Vigilante Group as
well as 3500 similar deaths recorded between 2002 and 2011 in the hands of
thousands of butchery vigilante groups particularly in the Southeast Zone.
The Odi
and Zakibiam military pogroms of 1999 and 2001 accounted for not less than
3500; Ethno-Religious and Sectarian butcheries 16,000; Boko Haram 3000;
election killings 2000; Inter-Communal killings 300; political assassination
220; and police custodial killings 17,000; totalling 54,000-57,000 deaths in 12
years or since 1999. In the report then, domestic homicides and killings by
Fulani Terrorist group were not captured. In Intersociety’s recent updates,
domestic and street homicides by common violent citizens are not included.
The
findings of December 2011 under reference heavily relied on unofficial
or independent sources with few corroborative facts from official
sources. Independent sources used included reports of local and
international rights investigative and research organizations like Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, NOPRIN, OSIWA and the US Department of State
on Human Rights; as well as reports of leading local and international media
organizations.
It is
on incontestable record that official crime statistics in Nigeria
are not only unreliable but also scanty. They are also bedevilled with dark
figures of crime syndrome (i.e. a large percentage of crimes so
committed are either not recorded or suppressed by official crimes recording
institutions).For full details of the report by Intersociety, see the link
below: http://saharareporters.com/2011/12/11/nigeria-state-war-how-over-54000-nigerians-died-outside-law-1999.
The Alarming Increase In Criminal Deaths
(101,500): 1999-2016:
The updates done by Intersociety clearly show that deaths arising from killing
outside the law have gone spiral and surged, hitting over 101,500
between June 1999 and December 2016. From over 54,000 deaths in December 2011,
it further shows that over 47,500 unarmed citizens were killed in five years,
between December 2011 and December 2016; out of which over 9,700 criminal
deaths took place in seventeen months of the Buhari Administration or since
June 2015.
The
total criminal deaths hit 101,500 in seventeen years and 47,500 in five years
of 2011-2016 following addition of about 8000 criminal deaths or civilian
detainees’ custodial deaths which Amnesty International (AI) in its report of
2015 linked to the Nigerian Army in the course of its counter insurgency
operations in the northeast Nigeria. The AI had in 2015 found that the
Nigerian military had executed at least 1,200 men and boys between 2012 and
2014 and was responsible for the deaths in custody of another 7,000.
Statistical Highlights:
1.
Over 101,500 criminal deaths in seventeen
years or since 1999, on average of 5,970 for each of the seventeen past years
2.
Over 54,000 criminal deaths as at December
2011 on average of 4500 for each of those past twelve years as at December 2011
3.
Over 47,500 additional criminal deaths in five
years or since January 2012, on average of 9,500 for each of the five years
4.
Boko Haram accounted for not less than 17,000
criminal deaths in five years or since December 2011 on average of 3400 for
each of the five years.
5.
Custodial deaths or deaths in detention
custodies mostly perpetrated by Police SARS, SCIDs and Army (during counter
insurgency operations) accounted for not less than 21,500 in five years or
since 2011 on average of 4300 for each of the five years and 350 monthly.
6.
Over 6000 killed by Fulani Terrorists in
five years or since 2011 on average of 1200 for each of the five years.
7.
A variant of Fulani Terrorists accounted
for at least 600 deaths in Zamfara State as at 2015.
8.
Boko Haram killed not less than 2500 in
seventeen months of the Buhari Administration on average of 147 for each of the
seventeen months.
9.
Fulani Terrorists killed not less than 1700
under seventeen months of the Buhari Administration on average of 100 for each
of the seventeen months.
10.
Over 4000 custodial deaths (Police SARS and
SCIDs-3500; Army and others-500) occurred under the Buhari Administration on average
of 235 for each of the seventeen months.
11.
Over 1500 State murders mostly perpetrated
by the Nigerian Army occurred under seventeen months of the Buhari
Administration including over 1120 Shiite deaths and 250 Pro Biafra activists’
deaths on average of 88 for each of the seventeen months.
12.
Over 700 cases of attempted murder
representing IMN and IPOB members shot and terminally injured courtesy of the
Nigerian Army.
13.
Over 9700 criminal deaths recorded in seventeen
months of the Buhari Administration on average of 570 for each of the seventeen
months
14. Criminal
deaths arising from inter-communal violence, election killings and dark figures
of crime accounted for not less than 1000 since January 2012; bringing the grand
total to 101,500 criminal deaths in the past seventeen years of 1999 to 2016 or
47,500 in the past five years of 2011 to 2016.
Exceptions: The criminal deaths above did not include
those arising from road or aviation or marine or rail accidents; domestic homicides;
street violent crimes’ generated homicides; recession and starvation generated
deaths (i.e. deaths in IDPs’ camps) and battle-fields related deaths (i.e.
fatal clashes between security forces and Boko Haram or Niger Delta Avengers).
Though they are unnatural deaths but Intersociety’s findings are strictly based
on inexcusable
criminal deaths or killings.
Besides, domestic and street violent crimes’ generated
deaths are supposed to be featured periodically in the Nigeria Police annual or
bi-annual crime statistics reports (if any); likewise road accident deaths
reports by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
It is
also important to add that Nigeria Police Force is locally and internationally
notorious for pre-trial or custodial killings of detained citizens. It is so
bad that even citizens who refuse or delay in parting with police personnel on
the road are randomly shot and sent to their early graves. Citizens arrested
and detained for minor misdemeanours and simple offences are also routinely
tortured and sometimes killed in custody following their refusal or inability
to pay huge “bail fees”.
For
those arrested non-violently or who are not armed and violent during their
arrest for violent crimes and detention in custody, they have automatically
signed “their death warrant”. Torture and other degrading treatments are also a
routine. Police custodial killings usually take place at night. All regular
police stations in Nigeria apply physical or psychological torture on their
detainees. The departments of the Nigeria Police Force deadly responsible for
custodial killings are the Special Anti Robbery Squads (SARS); followed by the
State Criminal Investigation Departments (SCIDs) and FCID.
There
exist 37 State and FCT Police SARS departments across Nigeria, in addition to
SARS departments in all the 12 Police Zonal Commands and the Force Headquarters
at Abuja. The same number of SCIDs also exists. In processing their detained
suspects, they hardly use mental and ICT investigative policing expertise or
handling styles. Pre-arrest and detention data mining is near zero and investigative
corruption including demand and forceful collection of huge “bail fees”
are also commonplace. Where detained
suspects cannot afford to “buy back their lives” or get themselves exonerated
through huge “bail fees”; they get executed usually at late night.
Modern
intelligence policing is near dead in the Nigeria Police Force. As result,
average of 200 citizens are killed monthly in custody mostly by Police SARS;
followed by SCIDs; on average of six citizens per State in every month. Army,
DSS and other security forces are not exempted particularly during
counter-insurgency operations. They also kill those arrested and taken into
their custodies.
Authorities: The
Intersociety’s report of 2011(Nigeria In A State Of War: How 54,000 Citizens
Were Killed Outside The Law Since 1999) and its various publications of 2015 and 2016 are our
lead-guide. Findings made by Intersociety in its recent updates are majorly
derived from the Global Terrorism Index
of the Institute for Economics and Peace 2013, 2014 and 2015 Editions; the
Premium Times of 10th of August 2016; the Core TV News of 22nd
November 2016; and the Lists of Global Terrorist Incidents of the Wikipedia
2015.
Others are the Criminal Force by OSIWA and NOPRIN 2010,
Amnesty International Reports of 2009 (Rest in Pieces) and 2015, Human Rights
Watch Reports of 2005 and 2007 (i.e. Killing At Will), Legal Defence & Aid
Project (LEDAP) Report of 2004, the US Department of State Reports on Human
Rights of 2009 and 2015, newest Amnesty International Report: October 2016;
Nigeria: Bullets Were Raining Everywhere; the Religion of Peace Organization Report of 2016, the (Christian) Open Doors Report of 2015,
the Ripples Nigeria’s publication of
2016, the ECWA Church Press Conference of 2016, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)’s
statements of 2015 and 2016, the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) World Wide information of 2015 and 2016, the
CNN, BBC, AFP and AP news reports of 2014, 2015 and 2016, etc. We are deeply grateful to these lead-research,
news and nonviolent socio-religious bodies.
Statistical Instances: In its 2014 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) Report, the Institute for
Economics and Peace found that terrorist attacks by Boko Haram and Fulani
Janjaweed resulted in 7530 deaths; thereby making 2014 the deadliest year for
Nigeria in terror attacks. In the same 2014, the GTI also found that the Fulani
Janjaweed killed 1229 unarmed citizens in Nigeria who were mostly rural
Christians. The Terror Group also killed 621 defenceless citizens in first six
months of 2015. Over 2000 deaths were recorded in 2013 courtesies of Boko Haram
and Fulani Janjaweed. In 2015, a total of 4940 deaths were recorded in Nigeria
in the hands of Boko Haram and Fulani Janjaweed (GTI 2016).
The Premium Times of 10th
August 2016 further reported that 1269 defenceless citizens were killed by the
Fulani Janjaweed in Benue State alone between 2013 and March 2016. In six
months of 2016 alone, a total of 140 Christians were killed in Southern Kaduna
by Fulani Terrorists according to the leadership of ECWA Church and in the same
2016, a total of 350 rural Christian famers were killed in Agatu in Benue State
and Nimbo in Enugu State. Hundreds of others were also killed by the terror
nomad group in various parts of the country including Plateau and Nasarawa
States. Just on Friday, 9th of December 2016, Boko Haram struck in
Adamawa State, killing at least 56 defenceless citizens.
To Christian Open
Doors, 13,000 Churches, 1500 Christian Schools and 11,500 Christian lives were
lost to Boko Haram terrorists in the north since 2000. Updates made by other
research groups clearly showed that the number of defenceless Christians killed
in Nigeria since then is over 13,000.
The Religion of Peace Organization in its
list
of Islamic terror attacks on Christians also documented loss of 3,572
Christian lives between 2014 and a part of 2016 with 2,528 documented in 2014
alone. According to the Core TV news of 22nd November 2016, a total
of 155 defenceless citizens were killed in less than a month in late 2016 and
50 others abducted in Maru, Shinkafi, Maradum and Zurmi Local Government Areas
of Zamfara State by a variant Fulani Terrorists called “Bandits”. Another 200
defenceless citizens were also butchered in a 2015 shooting spree according to
the GTI Report of 2015, released in the last quarter of 2016.
The emergence of the
Buhari Administration in late May 2015 also led to spiral increase in State
murders and terrorism. The Buhari Administration’s high political terror,
militarization and militarism policies also led to multiplication of
the country’s number of armed opposition groups; from about two before June
2015 to at least 18-20 in late 2016 with attendant increase in the inflow of
illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) to about 5million on average of
about a SALW for every forty Nigerians.
To Buhari
Administration’s disastrous record, the Shiite Muslim Movement (IMN) lost over
1120 of its defenceless and unarmed members including 1000 lost on 12th
and 14th December 2015 massacre, over 30 lost on 7th of
October 2016 and over 80 lost on 14th of November 2016. In the
November 14, 2016 massacre, the IMN recovered only eight bodies and later discovered
34 mass graves in a certain location in Kano State, possibly containing two or
more bodies in each of the 34 graves. Over 400 of its members are also victims
of attempted murder. The IPOB and its supporters lost over 250 of its members
and supporters on 30th of August and December 2 and 17 2015 as well
as 18th January, 29th January, 9th February
and 29th and 30th May 2016. Over 300 of its members are
also victims of attempted murder. The 180 other slain members of the IMN and
the IPOB technically represent dark figures of crime or unrecorded
killings.
Regime Irresponsibility And Failures: According to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global
Terrorism Index 2016, “99.5% of terrorism occurs in countries in conflict or
with high political terror” and that “over 73,000 terror attacks across the
world had killed 170,000 between 2000 and 2015”. Circumstances leading to the
criminal death of over 101,500 Nigerians in the past seventeen years of 1999 to
2016 or over 47,500 in the past five years of 2011 to 2016 are solely caused by
political class in furtherance of their thirst for political primordialism and
intensification of ethno-religious divisions and cleansing. Resort to militancy
and blood to get to Nigeria’s Presidency is now a commonplace. The Niger Delta
politicians used it through Niger Delta militancy to ascend to the Presidency
of Nigeria and the northern political hardliners used same through sponsorship
of Boko Haram to assume the new mantle of Nigerian Presidency in late May 2015.
The decline in Boko Haram terror attacks is largely and empirically attributed
to this fact, and not claims of “military successes”.
It saddens our heart
that the likes of Governor Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna State has graduated fully
into an Islamic Fundamentalist Governor.
He has abandoned the conventional art of governance to play the ignoble role of
radical Islamic cleric. The Governor should be impeached over his complicity in
the killing of Shiite Muslims and Southern Kaduna Christians.
The criminal killing of
101,500 defenceless Nigerians happened on account of regime irresponsibility and
failures; to the extent that guns and bullets are everywhere, yet
insecurity pervades the Nigerian landscape. The age-long structural and
physical violence targeted at the Igbo Race has spiralled and got intensified
under Buhari Administration.
Till date, most if not
all the State and non State actor perpetrators of the referenced heinous
killings are on the prowl. If a whopping number of 47,500 defenceless citizens
could be killed in just five years or from 2011 to 2016 and nothing is
concretely done about it till date; then Nigeria is at crossroads and doomed as
well. Every nook and cranny of Nigeria’s exit and entry point particularly
roads, borders, airports and marine routes are flooded with armed security
personnel, yet the percentage of real security for Nigerian citizens is at its
lowest ebb.
Take the case of Fulani
Janjaweed, for instance, its umbrella registered body, the Miyatti Allah Cattle
Breeders Association of Nigeria is still retained and recognized by the Federal
Government under its Corporate Affairs Commission as a registered body, despite
being a violent organization and armed opposition group. Till date, its leaders
and board members have not been arrested and charged for manslaughter for
killing of thousands of innocent and defenceless citizens; in accordance with
the country’s extant criminal laws.
The killer-elements
within the armed opposition group are still on rampage and on the prowl,
defying State sanctions including prosecution for murder or culpable homicide.
In all these, the Buhari Administration has steadily and dangerously kept mute,
aiding and abetting the butcheries; yet 1500 unarmed and defenceless citizens
including members and supporters of IPOB and IMN who never used or advocated
violence have been rounded up and massacred by soldiers, police and navy with
reckless abandon.
Three Igbo Distinguished Personalities of The Year 2016: 1. Nnamdi Kanu: In addition to renewal of the prestigious Prisoner-of-Conscience Award,
bestowed on Mr. Nnamdi Kanu who is leader of Radio Biafra London (RBL) and Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) World Wide, earlier this year; we have again resolved
to name him as one of the Three Igbo Distinguished Personalities
of the Year 2016. These are in recognition of his nonviolent and
peaceful campaign for the emancipation of the Igbo Race using nonviolent and
peaceful means.
Against all odds, he
has spent 14 months in detention without trial and his group IPOB has lost over
250 of its members and supporters to the militarist Administration of Retired
Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Over 150 of his members are presently
languishing in various prisons and other detention centres including DSS
dungeons across the country on trumped up criminal accusations. More than 300
of his members and supporters were also deadly shot and battered. The most
striking aspect of Kanu’s advocacy style that gladdens our heart is his pacifist approach, in spite of State
provocations and use of deadly violence in policing his group’s nonviolent
activities.
2. Peter Gregory Obi: He is the former
Governor of Anambra State and true embodiment of Peopling Governance, Input and Output Legitimacies. Mr. Peter Obi
is the first of its kind in recent Nigerian political and public governance
epoch. If his type is raised gubernatorially
in eighteen States of Nigeria’s 36 States; then the entire country will
automatically experience social, economic and political transformation of rapid
and scientific proportions.
What Mr. Peter Obi was
to Anambra State when he held sway was what then Governor Hilary Clinton was to
the State of Arkansas in the United States in 1980s; by raising his State to
high greatness. Former Governor Obi was chosen as the Second Igbo Distinguished Personality of the Year 2016, as a pace
setter and formidable standard of performance measurement for incumbent and
upcoming elected public office holders particularly the governors or Federal
elected public office holders. Apart from tremendous social and infrastructural
transformation of Anambra State when he held sway; he was and still is the only
governor that left his State with at least N86Billion worth of cash and investments
and in surplus digits. He was the only governor who refused to mortgage his
State into serial and slavish indebtedness. While a rich State like Lagos State
incurred over N500Billion debts till date, Anambra State under Obi reduced its
previous local and foreign debt overhang to N11Billion and refused to borrow.
Ikechukwu Ekweremadu: Barr Ike
Ekweremadu is chosen as the Third Igbo
Distinguished Personality of the Year 2016 on account of his bold and
courageous disposition against all odds since June 2015, in his capacity
as the Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and highest
Igbo Federal Lawmaker. He towered and withstood the executive persecution and
leprous treatment simply because he came from a federal opposition party and
insisted that the Igbo Race is too important in Nigerian political landscape to
be left out in the sharing of the principal leadership positions of the 8th
National Assembly of Nigeria. He has also made an imprint in the defence of
Igbo interests; in spite of threats and blackmails from the Executive Arm
since June 2015. Senator Ekweremadu's position as it affects the collective
interests of the Igbo Race particularly against the killing of innocent and
defenceless Igbo citizens by security forces and the Fulani Janjaweed is very
encouraging and endearing.
With this recognition
and the Three Igbo Distinguished Personalities, distinguishing
themselves in their three respective fields of social, governance and
legislative advocacies and performances; there is most likely a light at the
end of the tunnel for the Igbo Race. This recognition is not award bestowment
but rather an appreciation of the fact that the triplet Moses may most likely
have landed again in Igbo Land!
Thank You.
Compiled For:
International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law and
Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations
By: Emeka Umeagbalasi (a graduate of Criminology & Security
Studies and M.Sc. graduate of Peace & Conflict Studies)
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Email: [email protected]
Signed:
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