The last weekend’s coordinated massacre by the Nigerian Army
of hundreds of Shiite Muslim faithful of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in
Zaria, Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria; is not only a State murder and
terrorism; but also signals the return of Idi Amin era in the Nigerian Army under the
Commander-in-Chief of President Muhammadu Buhari. The Idi Amin era in the
present Nigerian Army context includes: (a) blood thirst of the person of Lt
Gen Tukur Buratai, (b) indiscriminate visitation of military’s maximum violence
on unarmed and defenseless citizens and groups at slightest or no provocation;
and (c) adoption of crude violence and falsehood by the Buhari’s Presidency as
State policy in government-citizens’ relationship and conducts. Totality of
these is called State murder and terrorism.
In Uganda, where the bestiality was once the order of the
day in the 70s under late Idi Amin Dada, countless State murders were committed
and series of carnage and ethnic cleansing were perpetrated and perpetuated
against targeted ethnic groups and other sections of the Ugandan population. In
all these, State falsehood was entrenched and independent media muzzled and
terrorized; for the purpose of covering up and watering down the atrocities of
the State. Two particular references
were those of State murder of the country’s then Justice Minister and Central
Bank Governor; upon which a stage managed/fake road accident was plotted as the
cause of their death.
Therefore, what played out in Zaria over the weekend bears
total semblance of the Ugandan State murder and terrorism governing style. The
theory of attempted assassination plotted and circulated publicly by the
country’s Army authorities as a reason for visiting war-like terror and
violence on unarmed Muslim faithful in Zaria, leading to massacre of hundreds
of them; is totally dead on arrival. It also exposes the crudity and
infantilism of the country’s Army Chief of Staff; Lt Gen Tukur Buratai in
matters of modern military and information technology. It further exposes him
as a combat general without common sense. Till date, no single video clip or
pictures of the parroted Army casualties with their identities have been shown
publicly by the Army or the so called media crew attached to the Chief of Army
Staff that accompanied him on the date of the dastardly act.
In modern criminological and criminal law circles;
assassination attempt or attempted murder must include grave bodily harm
(assault occasioning grievous bodily harm) inflicted on the target or a closest
third party on the scene or serious damage on surrounding property. Invocation
and application of right to self defense to repel it must also go with
proportionality of force or violence used by the attacker or attacking party.
But in the instant case or claim of assassination attempt, none of these was encountered,
shown or applied. Excusable blockage of the road does not in any way amount to
assassination attempt.
It is a common knowledge to all and sundry in Nigeria that
Muslim faithful (though condemnable) have long engaged in the habit of blocking
major roads including federal roads during their Friday Prayers or when marking
major Islamic activities. We are therefore, surprised as how this age-long
condemnable practice condoned till date by public office holders in the country
including Lt Gen Tukur Buratai; has suddenly become attempted assassination.
It is therefore our firm position that there is no iota of
truth in the claim of attempted assassination of Lt Gen Tukur Buratai; the
Chief of Army Staff. It is a clear case of crudity of use of State force or
violence against unarmed citizens and abuse of office. We challenge the COAS
and the Nigerian Army authorities to publicly show the pictorial and video clip
evidence of the casualties they claimed were inflicted on them by members of
the Islamic Movement of Nigeria as well as weapons and types of same used or
applied by the Sect in assassination attempt on COAS.
The only difference between the Onitsha Military/Police
Killings and the Zaria Army Massacre is that the latter is bloodier than the
former. In the context of acts, omissions and intentions, they are the same.
Just like the bare faced lies told by the Army authorities in the Zaria
massacre; the same tissues of lie were also dished out without any evidential
support; by the same Army authorities in the Onitsha Killings; where upon they
falsely claimed that they resorted to use of deadly force or violence against
the Pro Southeast self determination peaceful protesters when they discovered
that they were armed with dangerous weapons. The phrase: dangerous weapons are
expressly lesser in category and definition than firearms; coupled with the
fact that no single pictorial or video evidence of some or any of the
protesters holding machetes or daggers was shown publicly till date.
Relying on the media crew that reportedly accompanied the
Chief of Army Staff during the said incident; for the purpose of authenticating
the Army’s claim of attempted assassination on its COAS, does not hold water.
It is a common knowledge in Nigeria that he that pays the piper dictates the
tune. That is to say that the media crew particularly electronic media that is
attached to Nigeria’s public office holders including the Chief of Army Staff;
is usually on contract basis; for the purposes of covering their official activities
and protecting their unseen and usually dirty conducts.
Any member of the media crew that reports, broadcasts or
writes the opposite of such unseen or dirty conducts is occupationally doomed.
In some cases, members of the media found to be independent minded; who witness
such unseen or dirty conducts; are instantly made victims of perfect killing or
killed under stage managed circumstances. The suspicious State murder of the
photo journalist (Tunji Oyeleru of the Vanguard Newspaper) alongside then Executive
Director of the CLO (Chima Ubani) in Maiduguri, Borno State in September 2005;
during the anti fuel price hike rally is a clear case in point.
We wish to further state that the Zaria Army Massacre,
directed by Lt Gen Tukur Buratai is another time-bomb and insurgency-breeding.
Attestation to this fact are angry reactions trailing the dastardly act; coming
from right, left and center including Iran and Shiite strongholds in Iraq. The
Sect including its leader, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky; had in 2014 lost 34 of its
members in the hands of the Nigerian State military forces. Another 20 of its faithful were killed
recently in controversial bomb attack; in which the Sect strongly accused the
Buhari administration of involvement.
Among those killed in the two State’s murderous attacks were
his sons. In the last weekend invasion of his Sect’s headquarters, its leader,
Ibrahim El-Zakzaky was captured, mentally shattered and bodily lacerated as if
he was a field war captive; captured in combat. We just hope he will not go the
way of late Yusuf Mohammed. Till date, there is no strong evidence of the Sect
taking up arms against the Federal Government of Nigeria or engaged in
insurrection. The most despicable of it all was the second bloody invasion of
his Sect’s headquarters and mass killings and property destructions that
followed it. In all these, no single soldier that went on such rampaging attack
was credibly reported hurt or killed; thereby rubbishing the Army’s claims of
the Sect’s use of violence against its personnel including the COAS.
We are yet to see any leader of the so called Fulani
Herdsmen that had massacred or still massacre thousands of innocent Nigerian
citizens in rural parts of the country; being apprehended and prosecuted by the
Federal Government for killing of thousands of innocent Nigerians and
destruction of their hard earned properties.
It is therefore shocking that Nigerian leaders of today including
President Muhammadu Buhari and his Chief of Army, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai have
refused to realize that power is transient and that excessive use and
application of State violence is brazenly an office of office and amounts to
official invitation to anarchy and lawlessness. It is now a common knowledge
that Nigeria is on daily basis being pushed to brink by the Presidency of
Muhammadu Buhari.
The coordinated silence of the Buhari’s Presidency in the
Zaria Army Massacre and the Onitsha Military/Police Killings is not surprising
to us. That Lt Gen Tukur Buratai and IGP Solomon Arase still hold unto the COAS
and IGP positions despite their murderous roles in the twin carnage is also not
surprising to us. It worries and saddens our heart how Nigeria has descended
abysmally and fully returned to the cave under the Presidency of Muhammadu
Buhari in a twinkle of an eye. Under former Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria
moved from cave to forest and got stunted; but got raced back to the cave by
the Buhari’s Presidency within seven months. As Nigeria was crawling back and
forth between cave and forest; its contemporaries of the 60s and 70s like
China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia have long
completed their missions to the moon and are heading towards the mars.
It also shocks and saddens our heart over the coordinated
silence of key members of the international community including the UN and
leading international rights groups; in these unfolding triggers of anarchy and
lawlessness. It is extremely important to remind that the eruption of bloody
internal conflicts in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Syria (lately); solely
happened because the international community chose to become deaf and dumb;
leading to their refusal to do nothing. Watching idly the Government of
Muhammadu Buhari breaching, gravely, the international human rights and humanitarian
norms on daily basis; is grave disservice, on the part of UN and other leading
members of the international community, to the citizens of Nigeria and the
world at large. Nigeria has in the past seven months been turned upside down by
the Presidency of Muhammadu Buhari. The few advancements recorded in recent
past, in economy, justice sector; human rights, politics, infrastructures and
social services; have abruptly been upturned.
All draconian and obnoxious enactments and case-laws are now
on rampage and used to run riot on Nigerian citizens. From the judicially
castrated public order Act to Holden Charge; from long detention without trial
to trumped-up charges; and from Decrees 2 and 4 to pretrial perpetual
detention, per Terror Act of 2011; the list is numerous to mention. We have
severally kicked against and still kick against killing of unarmed citizens or
groups in Nigeria or any part thereof, irrespective of their ethnic, religious,
age or class affiliations. Any person or group of persons whether in military
or police that perpetrate or perpetuate such killings must be fished out no
matter how short or long it takes and brought to justice. In the Republic of
Chad, for instance, former President Hissene Habre had since 2014 been taken
into judicial custody for atrocities he committed during his tenure, which
ended in 1990. The duo of Lt Gen Tukur and IGP Arase has earned themselves
pariah status locally and internationally and such pariah status is not statute
barred.
We hereby call for international enquiries to be carried out
into the Zaria Army Massacre and the Onitsha Military/Police Killings. The
essence of this exercise to be conducted by the United Nations is to ascertain
the truth behind the dastardly acts and secure strong evidence in the two
heinous killings and fish out those directly and indirectly involved. The grand
aim is to charge those found individually and vicariously involved including Chief of Amy Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai and
Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, before the ICC or UN Special
Criminal Tribunal for crimes against humanity as well as sending a strong
message to the Nigerian authorities including President Muhammadu Buhari, IGP
Solomon Arase and the COAS, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai that the era of impunity for
mass murder, carnage, pogrom, rape, ethno-religious cleansing, torture and
murder, etc; culminating in commission of crimes against humanity; as well as
brazen abuse of office; is no longer condoned in any part of the world
including Nigeria.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
+2348174090052
emekaumeagbalasi@yahoo.co.uk, info@intersociety-ng.org
Uzochukwu Oguejiofor-Nwonu, Esq., Head, Campaign &
Publicity Department
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