The leadership of International Society for Civil
Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) wishes to inform all Nigerians
and international watchers that we have totally been vindicated concerning our
special publication of 6th of June 2016; titled: How Over 90 Biafran Heroes Day Activists Were Massacred By
Security Forces & Buried In Military Cemetery Inside Onitsha Army Barracks. Our vindication
follows the failure of the trio of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force
and the Government of Anambra State, which played leading murderous roles in
the genocidal massacre to statistically and correctly deny or contradict
findings of ours contained in the special publication. Today marks 96 hours or
four days after the release of the special publication, yet the three killer
establishment including the Buhari’s administration, have maintained “a
conspiracy of silence” or silence of the graveyard, till date. The special
publication has commendably received a very wide publicity in leading local and
international media, particularly the online and social media.
The findings of ours under reference have not only rattled
and unsettled the three killer establishments including the Federal Government
of Nigeria, but have also shamed them locally and internationally by exposing
and rubbishing their cooked up basket-load of lies. The Government of Anambra
State, on its part, has embarked on failed damage control and shedding
of crocodile tears. Another aspect of our research findings following
our special publication under reference is that the named killer authorities decided
to run riot on Nigeria’s traditional media with a basket-load of lies over
their genocidal acts in the genocide; the moment they realized that their
butchery acts have led to the death of over 120 innocent and unarmed citizens
and injuring of dozens of others in less than eight hours. Following
this, a basket-load of lies was let loose; stigmatizing and criminalizing the
event organizers and their supporters as well as mangling and suppressing
casualty figures with reckless abandon. The Government of Anambra State, for
instance, on its part, lied unpardonably by claiming that no single
activist was killed and that the unarmed and
innocent Biafran Heroes Day celebrants were armed with guns with which they
opened fire at the security forces and that other arms recovered from them
included dynamites, machetes and biafran flags.
The army and the police also corroborated the false claims of the
Government of Anambra State, leading to issuance of another violent order by
retiring IGP Solomon Arase, ordering for disarming of armed Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB) as well as the Nigerian Army, which claimed it acted
within the ambit of the Rules of Engagement, Self
Defense and Use of Force. In all these, lies of unpardonable and
alarming proportions were cooked up with intents to pollute the public minds
and cover-up their genocidal acts. But for our effective application of investigative analytical method and
microscopic evidencing, leading to exposition of the genocidal
atrocities under reference particularly the high casualty figures and their
secret mass burial; the Government of Anambra State, the Nigerian Army, the
Nigeria Police Force and the Federal Government of Nigeria would have succeeded
in contaminating the minds of Nigerian public and the international watchers
with their basket-load of lies using a gagged section of the Nigerian media.
The most heinous of the genocidal atrocities committed by the
three killer establishments was the brazen denial to the effect that no
innocent citizen lost his or her life in the genocidal massacre;
whereas above 120 deaths were recorded and above 130 deadly injured citizens
were affected. The second heinous part of it all was the coordinated unlawful
evacuation of dozens of corpses of the murdered activists and their secret mass
burial inside Onitsha Military Barracks cemetery. Totality of these is geared
towards cover-up or erasing of traces of criminal culpability of the
perpetrators.
It is therefore shocking and saddening that the same Governor
Willie Obiano that went gaga in feeding the whole world with the above named
basket-load of lies and labeling of Biafran Heroes Day celebrants as
“miscreants and hoodlums”; leading to their mass murder, has suddenly turned
around to shed crocodile tears and pretentiously apologetic. He had during his
visit at Nkpor, following the special report of ours under reference, promised
to “offset the hospital bills of the wounded”. This is after soldiers and SARS
under his security watch, had invaded a number of hospitals including the Nnewi
Teaching Hospital and abducted the wounded in their hospital beds; forcing most
of the 130 citizens with gunshot wounds in other hospitals in Anambra State as
well as Asaba in Delta State to flee their hospital beds and escaped to
neighboring States.
It further saddens our heart that the Governor who was
laboriously elected by the People of Anambra State in November 2013 to protect
them and ensure their welfare in accordance with Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999
Constitution, has turned against his people and even worsened their security
and welfare. Rather than rising to the occasion to protect his people against
the rampaging dictatorial administration of Gen Muhammadu Buhari and its
murderous uniformed men, Governor Willie Obiano has joined forces with sworn
enemies of his own people. Today, he is a “king governor” and governor of the
elites, while the masses who got him elected are abandoned with their lives,
liberties and social values including ethnic identities and rights to bury
their murdered loved ones turned to shreds and given away to rampaging ethnic
cleansers.
It is on record that out
of over 200 innocent and unarmed citizens; mostly in their 20s and 30s, killed
in the Southeast and the South-south parts of Nigeria by the Army, the Police
and other security forces between 30th of August 2015 and 30th of May 2016; a period
of nine months, following nonviolent and peaceful assemblies organized by self
determination activists and campaigners; 160 of them were killed in Onitsha
under the violent security watch of Governor Willie Obiano. The 160 dead
activists include four citizens killed in Awka on 30th of August 2015, over 13
killed in Onitsha on 2nd December 2015, over nine killed in Onitsha
on 17th of December 2015 and over 120 massacred in Onitsha and Asaba on
30th of May 2016 as well as 10 others or more found dumped in the
mortuary by soldiers and those that died later in hospitals including four that
died at the Multicare Hospital at Nkpor. Over 36 of those killed were killed in
Aba, Abia State on 18th and 29th of January and 9th of February 2016.
We therefore consider
Governor Willie Obiano’s promise to “offset the hospital bills of the wounded”
in the genocidal massacre of 30th of May 2016 as a fraud,
ill-conceived and grave insult to those himself and others violently departed
as well as those who were terminally wounded. This is because the same Governor
under whose security watch and authorization soldiers went on rampage, invading
hospitals and abducting the wounded in their emergency beds, leading to
desertion of all but few whose relations are yet to ascertain their whereabouts
or afraid to do same; is the same Governor “pledging to offset their hospital
bills”. At Nkpor Crown Hospital where he reportedly visited, all the gunshot
victims on admission, except two dead activists yet to be identified by their
families, have long been hurriedly discharged by their families. Mere
pledge to offset the hospital bills of the wounded is nothing but “medicine
after death” and desperate moves to panel-beat a second term gubernatorial
ambition; which is why we regarded the Governor’s grossly belated assuaging
moves as “failed damage control and shedding of crocodile tears”.
Now that our special
publication and its thoroughly investigated contents have forced the Government
of Anambra State through Governor Willie Obiano to probate and reprobate, there
are two frontal ways to remedy the genocidal massacre under reference; local
and international ways. Locally, on account of our expository
publication, which has forced the killer establishments to the point of
dumbness and apologies of the graveyard; the Government of Anambra State must
formally and boldly come out publicly to admit and explain fully its roles in
the genocidal massacre. These include how much it spent in funding the genocidal
operation through its JTF, the total number of innocent and unarmed citizens
that were killed, why they were killed, which provisions of the 1999
Constitution and regional and international conventions empower their killers
to kill them, how and why their remains were unlawfully gathered
from genocidal scenes by the State Government funded JTF and under what
condition they were kept before their secret mass burial in Onitsha Army
Cemetery, and why and how they were given secret mass burial inside the Onitsha
Army Barracks in the noon of Wednesday, 1st of June 2016.
The Government of
Anambra State must also tell the whole world the constitutional basis or
otherwise upon which its JTF operatives including soldiers and SARS invaded
hospitals where the wounded are receiving emergency medical attentions and got
them abducted and taken to undisclosed locations. Nigerians and international
watchers must be informed too, of the number of them that were shot dead or
forced to die on the process and where they were buried. There are reports of
abduction by soldiers and SARS operatives of innocent and unarmed citizens in
their homes in late night raids and invasions with some, if not many not seen
till date. The general public must be told where they were buried? Was it only
automatic weapons with live bullets that were deadly used by soldiers, SARS
operatives and police personnel in the genocidal massacre or were raw acid
substances and machetes used against innocent and unarmed Biafran Heroes Day
celebrants by soldiers, SARS and other security forces?
The Government of
Anambra State must also recant all the lies it told against the organizers and
supporters of the Biafran Heroes Day Anniversary to the effect that “they were
armed with guns, shot at security forces, killed two police officers, found
armed with dynamites and machetes and that nobody died on the side of the
celebrants”. Totality of these constitutes “true gubernatorial repentance,
confession and apology”. Shedding of crocodile tears is never good enough and
roundly rejected!
Further, all the
over 90 corpses of murdered Biafran Heroes Day celebrants secretly buried in a
military cemetery inside Onitsha Army Barracks in the noon of Wednesday, 1st of June 2016, must be
publicly exhumed by the Government of Anambra State,
demographically and pathologically identified and medically investigated. This
should be followed up by placement of Government radio and television
announcements on Government owned stations like ABS TV & Radio, local, national
and international NTA as well as privately owned TVs and Radios including
Channels TV, AIT, Silver Bird, Galaxy and Minaj TVs, as well as Blaze, Purity
and Odenigbo Radios, etc. Such adverts should also be placed on leading
newspapers and leading online media as well as Government written announcements
to be announced in churches, markets and town unions.
The Government
announcement will contain a call to members of the public and interest groups
to send the names and pictures and bio-data of their missing dead relations,
recovered dead bodies as well as those shot and wounded by soldiers and other
security forces in the genocidal massacre that took place in Nkpor, Onitsha and
Asaba between the early morning and late night of 30th of May 2016. The
Government of Anambra State must also designate easily accessible and secured
points of contact for collection and verification of such names and pictures as
well as ensuring hurdle and threats-free atmosphere for their family members
and friends so as to ensure maximum cooperation and responses.
The remains of those
murdered by the Government of Anambra State and its JTF must be released to
their families and in the case of those beyond scientific or pathological
identifications; their families must be allowed to go home with sands or earth
mud extracted from the secret mass burial sites inside Onitsha Army Barracks.
Each of the families of the 120 murdered activists must be issued with a
living cheque of N5million; while each of the families of the 130
wounded citizens must receive N2million cheque. After all these, the Government
of Anambra State through Governor Willie Obiano must tender unreserved written
apology to the Igbo race, the People of Niger Delta, members of the deceased
and the wounded families, the IPOB, MASSOB, the BIM, etc and all Nigerians and
international watchers. The written apology must be placed on leading
government and private media outfits: audio, audio visual, paper and online
media.
It is our further
recommendation to Federal Government of Nigeria and the Government of Anambra
State to put plans in place to relocate the Onitsha Army Barracks and
conversion of the land or space to “Freedom Square” for democratic free
speeches and peaceful assemblies to be dedicated to all those innocent and
unarmed citizens murdered since 30th of August 2015 as well
as to the peoples of Southeast and South-south Nigeria.
As for those who played
leading murderous roles in the genocidal massacre particularly Col Issah M.
Abdullahi (Commander, Onitsha Military Cantonment), Major C.O. Ibrahim
(operational commander of the genocidal massacre), CP Hosea Karma (CP,
Anambra State Command), DCP Makama (2i/c, Anambra State Police Command), DCP
J.M. Kokomo (DC, OPS, Anambra State Police Command) and the State Commissioner
for Information, Mr. Tony Nnacheta, etc, they should be administratively
dismissed from their duties and charged to court for murder, conspiracy for
murder, attempted murder and related others.
If the Federal
Government continues to refuse to make the named heads of security forces to
account for their heinous crimes as it did in the case of other
perpetrators, we shall be left with no other choice than to conclude that
“the Federal Government has again, failed woefully under the international
law’s “Principle of Complimentarity”; by being unwilling
and unable to bring its perpetrators to justice; thereby providing
sufficient grounds for international criminal justice including ICC
interventions or sufficient resort to other regional and international
remedies under the ECOWAS, AU or UN Systems. The manifest unwillingness
and inability of the Federal Government of Nigeria under reference has
already made the likes of President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Willie Obiano of
Anambra State, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (COAS), Mr. Solomon Arase (Retiring IGP),
CP Hosea Habila (CP, Abia State), Lt Col Sidi Kazim Umar Sidi (Commander, 144
Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Abia State) and ACP Peter Nwagbara (Aba Area
Commander) the ICC bound and international criminal justice fugitives; with the
test case of them all being retiring IGP Solomon Arase, who leaves the NPF on
21st of June 2016. We deeply pity him and his post retirement life.
This is because there is no longer impunity and immunity for regime atrocities
and no hiding place for their perpetrators.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties
& the Rule of Law
Emeka
Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
Mobile
Line: +2348174090052
Barr
Obianuju Igboeli, Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348034186332
Barr Chinwe Umeche, Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Mobile Line: +2347013238673
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
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