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| President Buhari |
The International
Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) is deeply
pleased and highly appreciative of the widely published letter by the
Republican Party’s Congressman, Tom Marino of Pennsylvania, to the US
Department of State through the Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, asking
the US Government to withhold its planned security assistance to Nigeria until ‘President Muhammadu Buhari
demonstrates a commitment to inclusive government and the most basic tenets of
democracy: freedom to assembly and freedom of speech’. Congressman Tom
Marino assumed office on 3rd January 2011 as Republican Party’s
Congressman representing the State of Pennsylvania and presently, he is a
member of the US House of Reps Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security and
Foreign Affairs as well as Chairman, House Sub-committee on Regulatory Reform,
Commercial & Antitrust Law.
The grand summary of Congressman Tom Marino’s saintly
letter to US Department of State is that the Buhari’s civilian Presidency is
disastrously marked by dictatorship, gross human rights abuses, political
exclusion and segregation, violence and militancy, sectionalism, deep
ethno-religious divisions and policy of militarism and militarization.
Totality of these gravely breaches the Constitution and
Laws of the United States particularly in matters of its foreign policy
relations and laws (i.e. the Leahy Law). The Leahy Law or Leahy amendment
is a U.S. human rights law that
prohibits the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing
military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with
impunity. It is named after its principal sponsor, Senator Patrick Leahy of
Vermont. To implement this law, U.S. embassies, the Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor and the appropriate regional bureau of the U.S. Department of
State vet potential recipients of security assistance. If a unit is found to have been credibly implicated in a
serious abuse of human rights, assistance is denied until the host nation
government takes effective steps to bring the responsible persons within the
unit to justice.
It is on account of the above that the referenced US
Congressman’s two-page letter to Senator John Kerry in his capacity as the US
Secretary of State is predicated. Rep Tom Marino had in his letter copiously
and credibly quoted various Amnesty International reports on Nigeria and Gen
Buhari’s Presidency; outlining gross rights abuses by the Presidency and its unwillingness
and inability to fish out the perpetrators and put them on trial.
Under the International Laws’ Principle of Complimentarity, no
foreign or international justice actions are required in or against any
member-State of UN as they concern gross human rights abuses if such
member-State clearly and credibly demonstrates ‘its ability and willingness to
fish out the perpetrators of such gross rights abuses and bring them to
justice; rested on international best practices’ and indeed, goes ahead and
does same. The reverse is the case where a member-State brazenly and
blatantly demonstrates unwillingness and inability to
make the perpetrators to account or is found to have aided and abetted such
heinous crimes in the context of ‘crimes against humanity or war crimes’.
Further, under existing UN or International Customary and
Humanitarian Laws, the UN or any member-State of UN under UN authorization can
initiate international peace operations against
any member-State found enmeshed in brazen regime atrocities,
culminating into complex humanitarian emergencies or
disasters. This is under the new international or UN’s doctrine of sovereignty
as a responsibility, adopted in 1993 as well as the universal human
rights doctrine of indissolubility, uniformity, indivisibility and
universality. That is to say that human rights violation anywhere is a
threat to human rights protection everywhere! The Tom Marino’s
letter is contained here: http://www.thetrentonline.com/us-congressman-slams-buhari/
We have also read and studied the reply to the US Congressman’s
letter by the Buhari Administration through its Minister for Information &
Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed. The response under reference is contained in the
following link: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/tune-reality-fg-replies-us-congressman/. As expected, the
Federal Government’s response was factored on emptiness, misinformation and
irrelevancies. Its claims that ‘Congressman Tom Marino was shabbily informed
about current realities in Nigeria’ are also empty and untrue. As a
matter of fact, Congressman Tom Marino’s letter is factually grounded,
spotless, timely and commendable. The regime atrocities of the Buhari
Administration highlighted in his letter are even grossly under-reported going
by the current realities.
For instance, the number of members of the Muslim Movement of
Nigeria (Shiite) massacred in December 2015 by the Nigerian Army on orders of
the Chief of Army Staff (Lt Gen Turkur Buratai), which Amnesty International
then gave as ‘at least, 300’; has since increased to over 800. The number of
Pro Biafra activists particularly the IPOB members massacred in at least eight
different locations in Southeast and South-south parts of Nigeria between
August 2015 and May 2016, which the Tom Marino’s letter gave as ‘over 36’
(quoting AI reports), is grossly under-reported. The real number is as high as
250 with over 300 others terminally shot and wounded. In the two tribal and
religious massacres under reference, the victims were unarmed and nonviolent.
Till date, the chief perpetrators of the genocidal massacres who are elements
in the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force are still on the prowl and
none of them has been arrested and put on trial. As a matter of fact, those
implicated are presidentially rewarded with promotions and juicy posts and
protected till date.
It is therefore totally correct to say that it is the Buhari
Administration that is out of tune with global realities including the current
trends in international relations and laws as well as the codified and
constitutionalized foreign policies of the United States, which Congressman Tom
Marino is battling to ensure that they are not rubbished by the Obama
Administration via his letter. What Congressman Tom Marino did in his letter
was to fundamentally state the obvious and remind the US Department of State of
its duties under the existing laws and procedures of the USA.
The Buhari Administration’s defence in its glaring
sectionalized appointments using the so called ‘board appointments’ as an
indication of geopolitical and geographical spread and balancing; is totally
mischievous and an argument grounded in crookedness. Using ministerial
appointment criteria mandatorily provided in the 1999 Constitution as an escape
route is a further attestation of an administration founded on falsehood,
misdirection and deceit.
Till date, one of the greatest minuses of the Buhari
Administration is its corrupted sainthood. To the prompters and
promoters of the current riotous Presidency of Gen Muhammadu Buhari, the
Buhari Administration does no wrong, sees no wrong and says no wrong.
That is to say that the Administration has never admitted any fault or wrong
doing since its inception in late May 2015.
It is our additional information that one of the things that
Congressman Tom Marino failed to observe and highlight in his epochal letter to
the US Department of State is that ‘this is a civilian regime that has hung
over 150 constitutional breaches and regime atrocities around its neck in the
past 15 months or since late May 2015’. The Congressman Tom Marino’s letter
also omitted the fact that ‘rule of law and due process have been grossly
bastardized and corrupted under Buhari’s Presidency’; that the likes of Sheik
Ibrahim El-Zaky Zaky (leader of the Muslim Movement of Nigeria (Shiite) who was
taken into DSS custody in the middle of December 2015, after his body was
bloodily designed with bucketful of shot live bullets and lacerated, has not
been produced in public or tried in any court in Nigeria till date; a period of
over eight months. The letter also omitted the fact that citizens are arrested
and detained with reckless abandon amidst grave torture, by the Police, the
Army and the DSS on orders of Gen Buhari. Some of them have been held without
trial or release for over eighty days contrary to Section 35 (4) of the 1999
Constitution while others being detained have been marked to be held in like
manners.
The Congressman Tom Marino’s letter further omitted the fact that
Citizen Nnamdi Kanu (POC), who is the leader of nonviolent and unarmed Pro
Biafra self determination agitation has been in detention for over ten months
or 300 days without standing trial in any court in Nigeria. In other words, he
is presently being held under ‘Holden Charge’ or pre-trial detention, which is
gravely contrary to international justice administration best practices. It is
our update information to the likes of ‘Saint’ Tom Marino and ‘Demon’ John
Kerry that nonviolent and lawful assemblies in Nigeria are now not only made
felonious offences via a presidential secret code or coded directive, but it
has also become ‘a capital offence’ resulting in ‘shoot-at-sight’,
indiscriminate crackdown and mass arrest and long detention without trial of
their proponents. Just last night, the names of 45 citizens of Southeast and
South-south Nigeria marked for abduction and possible extra judicial execution
by DSS was leaked. All the names are members and promoters of the nonviolent
and unarmed Indigenous People of Biafra or IPOB. Their names were typed on the
official letter-headed paper of the DSS, dated and pasted on the wall of one of
its administrative offices in Abuja, Nigeria. It is possible that the notice
was snapped and posted online by a disillusioned DSS operative.
Thirty-eight (38) of the 45 names are Sunday
Onyekachi, Ogechukwu Obiorah, Ann Okafor, Amaechi Sunday Kanu (Sheffield, UK),
Dickson Ekene, Ndidi Ojukwu, Emma Powerful, Emma Nmezu, Uchechi Kanu (London,
UK: Nnamdi Kanu’s wife and nursing mother), Sidney Okoli (Mollorca, Spaiin),
Andy Obeche, Ifriam Ezeiwu, Chukwuemeka Mfon, Ikenna Sunday Egono,
Chijioke Ekwueme, Godwin Osinachi, Udoka Amarachi (Dortmund, Germany), Uche
Martin Doludo, Nduka Enuma, Ambrose Ero, Clifford Mbamere, Andy Obina Okafor, Stephen
Oko (Uk), Onyeka Joseph, Eric, Dike Benson, Uche Emmanuel Uche, Udoka Okechukwu
David, Martins (Austria), Michael Chidi Okafor, Daniel Ifeanyi (USA), Roland
Abumere, Kenneth Uche Opara, Emenike Anyanwu, Obinwanne Markson Chukwujekwu,
Chukwu I Ojiugo, Ezinwanne Mba, Jeff Amechi. The link to IPOB members’ wanted
list of the DSS is contained here: http://www.otimestv.com/2016/09/shocking-sss-releases-list-of-wanted.html#more
Already,
eight key members and promoters of IPOB in Nigeria have been arrested by DSS
between 22nd June 2016 and 26th of August 2016 and till
date; none of them has been put on trial or told offenses under which they are
being detained without trial. The eight IPOB members are Citizens Chidiebere
Onwudiwe (arrested on 22nd June 2016), Justice O. Udeh (arrested on 13th
of July 2016) and Chukwuka Sunday Obasi (shot on his two legs and arrested on
16th of August 2016). Others are Citizens Ikechukwu Ugwuoha,
Ugochukwu Asochukwu, Sunday J. Okafor, Ekene Onuoha and Joseph Okorie. They
were arrested on 26th of August 2016 at Ugba Junction, near Aba in Abia State,
Southeast Nigeria and held as at 5th of September 2016
at the DSS dudgeon in Umuahia, Abia State.
We hereby
commend the courage and sagacity of Congressman Tom Marino for not only
speaking out against the raging regime atrocities in Nigeria but for also
calling the Obama administration to order, and thwarting and exposing the
current US Administration’s attempts to return the country to its inglorious
foreign policy past during which it riotously aided and abetted tortuous and
atrocious regimes in Africa, South America and Asia. Republican Tom Marino’s
letter is a huge consolation to tens of millions of Nigerians particularly the
victims and potential victims of the Buhari’s regime atrocities.
Events,
they say; throw up social saints and social demons! Today, a social sainthood
is created and social saint born in the person of Congressman Tom Marino
and a name ‘Senator John Kerry’, perceived in some quarters as ‘a potential
social demon’, has been made ‘a social demon’ for real, on account of
Congressman Tom Marino’s epochal letter and exposition! Other internationally
respected personalities are called upon to speak out against raging regime
atrocities in Nigeria and stop the Buhari Administration from its disastrous
and steady match to plunge Nigeria into complex humanitarian emergencies or
disasters of unmanageable and uncontrollable proportions!!
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
(Intersociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board
Chairman
Mobile Line:
+2348174090052
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
Obianuju Igboeli, Esq., (LLB, BL)
Head, Civil Liberties
& Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line:
+2348034186332
Chinwe Umeche, Esq.,
(LLB, BL)
Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Mobile Line: +2347013238673
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