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, sheepishly, 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 Usman
Acting Director Army Public Relations
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
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
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348180771506
Chinwe Umeche, Esq.
Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Mobile Line: +2347013238673
Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Mobile Line: +2347013238673
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
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