A US-based human rights group,
the “Rapid Response Fact-Finding Mission, RRFFM” has asked President Muhammadu
Buhari to immediately withdraw troops from the South-east zone of the country.
The group also urged the
International Criminal Court, ICC, to investigate alleged cases of human rights
abuses meted out to the people.
The calls followed a field
investigation conducted by the group in the aftermath of the military invasion
of the home of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi
Kanu under the “Operation Python Dance II.”
In a statement signed by Emmanuel
Ogebe, he said, “The President of Nigeria should stand down the troops in the
southeast till their mission scope is clearly defined and clarified and
necessary legal benchmarks for deployment are met or better still redeploy them
to northern Nigeria where on the Niger side of the border terrorists suspected
to be Boko Haram killed 4 American troops last week.
“The President should consult the
state governors as chief security officers of their states on the necessity or
lack thereof of military deployment.
“The military should apologize to
and return the seized phone of a journalist. The army should desist from
further acts of aggression, intimidation and rights abuses of civilians
including continuing attacks on the already destroyed home of Afara Chief Kanu
“The army should identify for
court martial its personnel who ransacked and man handled innocent journalists
in their press center.
“The army should disclose the
true casualties of its operations and provide compensation to the victims while
arraigning the perpetrators.
“The government of Nigeria should
allow the trial of IPOB leader Kanu to continue under the established framework
of the legal system instead brute military force.
“Failure to do so could force the
further metastization into yet another insurgency which Nigeria simply cannot
afford on an eastern flank.
“The government should as a
matter of urgency provide treatment and compensation to the victims and
families in a confidential manner that does not expose them to
terrorist-labeling.
“The government should close the
“governance gap” exemplified by infrastructure deficits at local levels that
are deep drivers of discontentment and frustration in an ordinarily industrious
and entrepreneurial populace.
“The international community and
the Nigerian government should investigate the human rights abuses to ensure
justice is done especially as the 50th memorial of the Asaba massacres is
marked for which no perpetrators have been brought to book half a century
after.
“The government should revisit
the National Conference report that has encapsulated a lot of the institutional
injustices that undermine equity and FairPlay in the Nigerian contraption.
“The International Criminal Court should look into the military abuses in the
southeast as part of its ongoing preliminary examination into Nigeria’s
security forces.”
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