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Tag: amnesty

  • Ex-militants protest non-payment of allowances

    Ex-militants protest non-payment of allowances

    Some beneficiaries of the Phase two amnesty programme have begged President Mohammadu Buhari to pay their allowances which they alleged was stopped since March, 2012.

    The beneficiaries from Delta State who protested to the premises of the Nigeria Union of Journalist in Benin City Wednesday said they were warned not to protest in Delta State again.

    Two ‘ex-generals’, Pawpaw Julius and Gideon Ogbe who led the protest accused former head of the amnesty programme, Kingsley Kuku of conniving with their leaders to defraud them.

    They said the few allowances they collected were not paid into their individual account but into an account belonging to camp leaders.

    The protesters said they only opened account with the United Bank for Africa but were surprised that their allowances were paid into a Fidelity Bank account.

    According to them “Kingsley Kuku and the amnesty officials got some slots from camp leaders which enhance the evil business of diverting salary and paying everything in the leaders’ account with our names being impersonated by unknown persons.

    “Vocational training is no longer in progress and most of our international passports are lying dormant in the offices.”

  • Amnesty International, Nig Army and Gowon

    Amnesty International, Nig Army and Gowon

    Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, has an admirable patriotic spirit that makes him leap to the defence of anything Nigerian, especially when the country is under international attack. Last week, he leapt fiercely into the fray against Amnesty International (AI) for accusing the Nigerian Army of war crimes. Speaking through his spokesman at a book launch in Abuja on June 30, Gen Gowon argued, “The [Amnesty International’s] report was most unfair and misleading; they were (ascribing) to the Nigerian military what the Boko Haram was doing against the Nigerian public – military and civilians alike. It is Boko Haram that has been committing atrocities and horrendous, mindless killings of innocent citizens and security personnel. It is Boko Haram that must be condemned, not the Nigerian armed forces.”

    Gen Gowon has not disclosed his corroborations. Amnesty supported their observations with facts and figures, which can of course be controverted with superior arguments, if they are available. Perhaps the general has his facts; but he did not feel compelled to make them available at the book launch. More appropriately, however, no matter how much Gen Gowon or any other patriot wants to empathise with the often maligned Nigerian military, there is absolutely nothing wrong in supporting investigations into the allegations. After all, the investigations are local.

    Even in developed societies with sophisticated security forces, their armies sometimes come under investigations, and erring officers are punished. Nigerians can express confidence in their army, but let them not stand in the way of investigations. Reports suggest that President Muhammadu Buhari is not opposed to investigations. That is the proper attitude to show in this matter. If Nigeria is to get international help in the increasingly fierce Boko Haram war, it has no choice but to allow investigations. Who knows what facts may turn up? If the army is exculpated, the country will rejoice. If war crimes are established, the guilty officers should be punished. In any case, the guilt of a few soldiers does not imply the guilt of the entire army or whole country.

     

  • Fed Govt must end impunity, says Amnesty

    Fed Govt must end impunity, says Amnesty

    Amnesty International has said the Federal Government can end impunity by investigating and dealing with all cases of human rights abuses.

    AI, in a statement by its Africa Director – Research and Advocacy, Netsanet Belay, said President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to ending impunity.

    The statement reads: “Observing the public debate following the publication of Amnesty International’s recent report on war crimes committed by the military I am reminded of the words of Wole Soyinka: “Power is transient, justice eternal”.

    “Since we came back from Abuja, I have noted the positive commitment from the President as well as the usual dismissive response from the military. I have heard from Nigerians from all walks of life.

    “Time will tell whether truth and justice will prevail in Nigeria. But let me set the records straight to clarify some emerging misconceptions.

    “Amnesty has documented and condemned in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Boko Haram and we will continue to do so.

    “As recently as April 14, 2015, the first anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok school girls, we published a comprehensive report, ‘Our job is to shoot, slaughter and kill’ documenting and condemning the horrific crimes of Boko Haram in the Northeast of the country.

    “The April report showed that in addition to abducting at least 2,000 women and girls, Boko Haram had killed at least 5,500 civilians and brutalized tens of thousands between 2014 and March 2015.

    “And this report was not the first. My team have been on the ground documenting and exposing multiple war crimes, crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses committed by Boko Haram since the start of the crisis. These findings were published in Amnesty International reports in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. And each time, we have called for justice for the victims of Boko Haram.

    “But we have also documented serious human rights violations perpetrated by the military in the course of the fight against Boko Haram.

    “In our sister report to the report about Boko Haram atrocities, ‘Stars on their Shoulders. Blood on their Hands’ we documented war crimes and crimes against humanity by the military.

    “What Amnesty International uncovered in Nigeria was not a handful of civilian casualties caught in the cross-fire. It was evidence of a systematic process whereby more than 7,000 mainly young Nigerian men and boys died in military detention and more than 1,200 people were unlawfully killed. The vast majority of those unlawfully murdered were non-combatants, most killed following arbitrary arrests.

    “These are Nigerian fathers, sons and brothers. They are the missing husbands of the women interviewed by Amnesty International who cannot afford to feed their children or send them to school since their husbands disappeared. They are the sons of the parents who have spent the past year visiting every barracks, police station and jail they can reach to search for their missing children.

    “As an independent, impartial organisation, dedicated to documenting and exposing the most serious human rights violations wherever they are committed and whoever they are perpetrated by, Amnesty International is speaking out about these violations, and with a clear purpose.

    “We are asking what happened to the thousands of young men arrested without any evidence against them and who have never been brought to court.

    “We are demanding justice for the people trapped by the cycle of violence and impunity, perpetrated by both Boko Haram and the very military that is supposed to protect them

    “The horrific acts committed by Boko Haram must end and perpetrators of crimes under international law in its ranks must be punished. But their horrific acts cannot and should not be used to justify the Nigerian military’s unlawful conduct and human rights violations. The military cannot tackle war crimes by committing war crimes. Safety and security cannot be delivered by executing, torturing and ill-treating thousands of people.

    “The findings of this recent report resulted from years of detailed research including more than 400 interviews and the analysis of 90 videos and 800 official documents. We travelled repeatedly to the Northeast, gathering information and interviewing witnesses, victims and the families. People told us how they had been rounded-up with hundreds of other young men and boys after cordon searches and held in overcrowded cells. Many were starved, suffocated, and tortured to death.

    “We also spoke to other witnesses who are themselves senior members of the security forces, but who felt that these abhorrent practices within the military must be stamped out.

    “We shared our findings with various sections of the Nigerian government. Since 2013, we have sent 57 letters to the federal and state authorities: sharing research findings, raising concerns about ongoing violations and requesting information and specific action, such as investigations. We only received 13 responses, none of which demonstrated the previous government’s commitment to launching an independent, impartial and effective investigation into these serious crimes. Where investigations were launched they were conducted by the military and the conclusions have never been published.

    “The Nigerian government has had repeated opportunities to confront and investigate these allegations but, despite mounting evidence, they have failed to do so.

    “President Buhari has stated that his government will leave no stone unturned to investigate and deal with all cases of human rights abuses. We join millions of Nigerians in welcoming this commitment.

    “We hope that this will be the beginning of the end of impunity in Nigeria and that it will bring hope to those desperate to find out what has happened to their loved ones.

    “No military is beyond scrutiny. All we ask is that the government of Nigeria does what is right, and what it is bound to do under international law, and delivers justice to the thousands of victims of this conflict.

    “The time to act is now.”

  • Boko Haram: Amnesty and the military

    Amnesty International, the world’s foremost human rights campaigner, must be surprised at the energetic reaction of the Nigerian people and organisations to its report of June 3, on the conduct of the Nigerian armed forces in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists. In the report, Amnesty charged Nigerian soldiers and their commanders with gross human rights violations, including execution of some 7,000 innocent people for not producing Boko Haram members who killed their comrades in arms in their villages and towns. Even the Nigerian human rights community reputed for its criticisms of the Nigerian state was in the forefront of the denunciation of the Amnesty report which also calls for the arrest and prosecution of soldiers, middle and senior military commanders, including the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, and the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff,  Lt Gen Azubuike Ihejirika, and their successors. Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to look into the allegations and treat them with the seriousness they deserve.

    Nigerians, irrespective of their differences and political leanings are united in the criticism against the Amnesty report. This is one of the rare instances in our recent national history where national consensus has been reached so easily. The reason is simple: Boko Haram is a national embarrassment of profound proportions. All of us are casualties, to use the language of J.P. Clarke, the outstanding Nigerian poet, playwright and essayist. In other words, those who used to think that the insurgency was a north-eastern affair were in grave error. One of the first officers to be felled in the war against Boko Haram was a young gallant captain from Ozubulu in Anambra State in the South-east. The highest ranking officer to be gunned in the battle against Boko Haram was a brilliant Lt Colonel from Uke in Idemmili North Local Government Area, also of Anambra State, a veteran of the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars who had just returned from China where he underwent an advanced course in guerrilla warfare. Various Igbo communities with their sons and daughters in the north lost quite a number of them when Boko Haram terrorists on occasion opened fire on them in places like Niger State and Adamawa State. The most senior officer being tried right now for cowardice in the war against the terrorists is Brigadier General Ransome-Kuti, from Abeokuta in Ogun State. To state the obvious once again, we all are in various ways casualties of the Boko Haram menace.

    Nigeria may be far from being a united political entity, but the war against the insurgents is bringing the people together. Bertrand Russel, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, has called our attention to how crises tend to unite people. In his BBC prestigious Reith Lectures, Russel argued that passengers on a bus may not be talking to each other because they are strangers, but they would definitely come together to fight an enemy if any of them is attacked by an external force. Nigerians have been denouncing the Amnesty report like one man because, among other things, the report would seem to provide a tremendous propaganda weapon to the terrorists. The report is ominously silent on the unspeakable atrocities committed by the dangerous sect daily against defenceless members of society, a development which brings to mind the ongoing savagery in the Middle East by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which interestingly attracts strong condemnation from all and sundry around the world. The new Amnesty report which demands the prosecution of top military officers for war crimes is reminiscent of the report by the same human rights organization in 2009 which strongly condemned the Nigerian police for killing the founder and leader of extremely the dangerous Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Yusuf, and demanded severe punishment for the security men but said nothing about the scores of policemen butchered like animals in an unprecedented orgy of violence which rocked Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, for days. Consequently, Nigerians often wonder if Amnesty International is on the side of terrorists.

    True, the Nigerian military is fighting the terrorists from a disadvantaged position. Our soldiers are trained to fight in conventional war where the enemy has a known territory, wears a uniform and to some extent obeys rules of engagement. Boko Haram is composed of sheer terrorists, and the brainwashed membership engages in guerrilla warfare. While the military takes its time in firing against the enemy so as to minimize collateral damage as much as possible, terrorists do not give a hoot if innocent persons are felled down by their bullets. Like armed robbers under siege by security men, Boko Haram members just spray bullets on all and sundry, delighting in collateral damage. As far as they are concerned, women and children are targets, a fair game. They routinely disguise as pious Muslim women and frequently strap improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on callow eight-year-olds, turning them into cannon fodder.

    Soldiers who fight in such circumstances anywhere in the world are bound to be edgy. They could tamper with human rights easily. The truth is that even in the best of conventional wars, there are always gross human rights abuses. As any American soldier who has been on a duty of Iraq since 2003 can tell you in confidence, the reported human rights violations by American soldiers which Washington reported are only a tip of the iceberg, the least of such awful abuses which occurred on a grand scale. The concept of espirit de corps compels commanders not to escalate the reports to higher authorities. War is no tea party anywhere. Thousands of innocent lives are at stake every minute. In most cases, the political authorities turn a blind eye to such reports because they do not want to demoralize the young men and women in the firing line. Both President Richard Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, were aware of the terrible things which American fighters were doing in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s against the locals.

    Still, the Amnesty International’s allegations of improper conduct against the Nigerian military should not be dismissed with a cavalier wave of the hand. All soldiers, including those fighting in wars, must abide by the Geneva Convention, the rule of law and due process. The lives and dignity of fighting soldiers are as important as those of civilians. What riles most Nigerians about the Amnesty report is that the human rights body seems to be on a mission to demoralize and demonise the Nigerian military which has over the decades given a wonderful account of itself in various countries of the world. Our past and serving top commanders appear to have been marked down for ruination, accusing them of complicity in atrocities even when all evidence suggests they have been absolutely ignorant of the alleged human rights violations. The Amnesty report seems to have provided Boko Haram a propaganda stunt which former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously called  the oxygen of life for terrorists the world over. Nigerians deserve better.

    • Mustapha, a retired naval officer, sent in this article from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
  • Amnesty…Which way?

    Amnesty…Which way?

    There is a severe romance between crime and amnesty. Crime can exist without amnesty. Amnesty cannot be without crime.

    Let’s look at this from another prism: crime also depends on the society. The society can exist without crime, but crime needs the society to exist. Our world is one where dependence is something that we cannot do without.  Someone always depends on the other.

    Since May 29, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has been without a head. Its chairman, who also doubled as the Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Kingsley Kuku, left with his principal, Dr. Goodluck Jonatahn. And without a head, that office is like an egg without its shell. It is simply useless and the effects are beginning to show.

    Last Saturday, President Muhammadu Buhari was in South Africa to participate in the African Union (AU) Summit. A day before Buhari left for South Africa, some Nigerian students being sponsored by the Amnesty Office went gaga. They held hostage the food vendor who has been feeding them for years.  These students, I understand, were angry because the Amnesty Office has been unable to fulfil its financial obligations to them. Because of this, they have been stranded in South Africa and they could not come home as scheduled. It took a lot of intervention before they were prevailed upon to let the vendor be. Their grand plan was to cause a chaotic scene that Buhari would meet on getting to South Africa for the AU summit.

    It is not only those in South Africa that are protesting. There have been protests back home too, which led to the blocking of the East-West Road in Delta and Bayelsa states over the non-payment of their allowances.

    From what I hear, consultants in the Amnesty Office are also in dilemma. They cannot get paid too unless there is a head who will issue instruction for them to be paid. The students in the U.S. and other parts of the world are also in a quandary. The civil servants attached to the office, however, have no such financial worries.

    It is important to state that the problem is not cash but who to give the order for the money to be paid. And there comes Buhari, whose job it is to appoint a head for the office in the form of a Chairman. It is three weeks today since Buhari took over and having said he would not scrap the programme, the agony of the consultants, students and others involved in the Amnesty Office should end and the only way to do this is to appoint a chairman for it.

    Next week, specifically on June 25, the programme will be six years. The journey has been rough. It has come under attack. Some people think it has supplied some people with free cash to roll on the lap of luxury, enjoy women of easy virtues and turn champagne to hand-washing liquid.

    Let me go into a bit of background to properly situate the dynamics which led to the creation of the programme.

    Decades before its birth, the Niger Delta, where Nigeria derives the bulk of its revenue, witnessed agitations. The people expressed unhappiness over the way they were neglected. Their farms were polluted by oil spills. Their streams were taken over by crude oil. Their health worsened. And their existence was seriously threatened.

    Close to the birth of the amnesty programme, the agitation had taken a new twist. Before the deadly twist, Ken Saro-Wiwa had been judicially murdered by the military junta of Gen. Sani Abacha. Several other people had been killed by security operatives under one guise or the other. With intellectual activists like Saro-Wiwa out of the way, another generation of activists took over. This set believes if you make peaceful change impossible, you make violent change inevitable. They also believe it is illegal to be lawful in a lawless environment. So, they took to arms in their quest to prove a point.

    In no time, oil pipelines were damaged at a devastating speed. Military boat houses were bombed. Barrels of oil were siphoned.  Oil installations were blown up and oil workers were afraid to go to the rigs and others. The economy bled. The country was losing billions daily.

    The Oluegun Obasanjo administration in early 2000s created the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Its mandate was to develop Niger Delta. But, its activities meant nothing to the militants who were set to bring down the country unless the region was given control over its resources. The impact the NDDC could have made was limited by the fact that its dues were not given to it. The statutory payments that should be made to it were withheld by all arms of government. It ran into trillions and all efforts to get the money released for the betterment of the people did not work.

    Things were getting worse by the day. They were still in that terrible state when the administration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was inaugurated on May 29, 2007. That the then president was uncomfortable with the state of war in the Niger Delta soon showed. First, he created the Ministry of the Niger Delta. Pronto, the government set up a technical committee to review all existing reports on the region. The committee, headed by ex-President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mittee, recommended an increase of the derivation fund from 13 per cent to 25 per cent. It also recommended open trial for one of the faces of the arms struggle, Mr Henry Okah who was then in detention in Angola. Another of its recommendation, which led to my birth, is that youths in the region must be disarmed through a credible Decommissioning, Disarmament and Rehabilitation (DDR) process.

    The late Yar’Adua knew something urgent must be done to rescue the situation. Aside his love for peace, he also needed to save the country from international embarrassment that the arms struggle had become. By then, there had been reports of militants partaking in piracy activities on the Gulf of Guinea, a development which had seen the governments of Equatorial Guinea and Angola complaining to Yar’Adua at international meetings. Okah was mentioned by the two governments as being responsible for the piracy activities against their countries. Okah was a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which had claimed responsibility for many of the kidnappings and the attacks on oil facilities in the region.

    Fast forward to April 2009, the then president dissolved the board of the NDDC. Timi Alaibe, who was the Managing Director, however, got another job. He was appointed Special Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs. His major job, it turned out, was to midwife the birth of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

    Two months after Alaibe’s appointment, Yar’Adua breathed life into the programme. Its birth did not immediately bring excitement. Okah’s detention was a major factor for the insurgency’s leadership’s apathy to embrace it. Yar’Adua recruited Chief Tony Anenih, Dr Koripamo Agary and Dr Ferdinand Ikwang, among others, to assure the agitators that he was truthful about not victimising them after dropping their guns.

    Alaibe traversed the creeks persuading hard-line militant leaders to embrace me. He did not do it alone. He got Kuku, the Arogbo-born ex-member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, who had worked with him as Special Assistant at the NNDC, to get Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Mujahhid Dokubo-Asari, General Shoot-at-sight and many other leaders of the arms’ struggle to sign up to Yar’Adua’s offer.

    Okah, who had by then been repatriated from Angolan and was standing treason trial at the Federal High Court, Jos, was a major issue in the refusal of many militant leaders to accept me. But, because Yar’Adua wanted the programme to live, he agreed to drop charges against Okah and on July 13, 2009, Okah became a free man. Okah’s release did not go down with many in the military circle and elsewhere and it did not convince some militants leaders to embrace the programme until hours before the deadline of October 4 set by Yar’Adua.

    Between June 25 and October 4, 2009, 20,192 militants embraced the offer by handing over arms in excess of 20,000. Others who did not hand over their weapons initially because of the fear of the unknown later did before the deadline expired. Even after the deadline’s expiration, 6,166 more people bought into the programme.

    Over 30,000 ex-militants have been given a new lease of life through the programme. Not less than 2,000 students are abroad studying for one degree or the other. There are several others who have been trained as pilots, marine engineers, underwater welders and experts in various oil and gas fields.

    It must be stated that the programme has not ended criminality in the Niger Delta. Oil pipelines are still sabotaged and Nigeria still loses a lot to the activities of illegal refineries and the likes.

    My final take: Certainly, this is no time to kill the Amnesty Programme. Adding more pep to it may be more like it. The students abroad, who are the future of not just the Niger Delta, but Nigeria, should not be stranded abroad. Those working with the Amnesty Office and ex-militants also should not have to go through agony because there is no chairman to give direction. President Buhari, the time to act is now.

    •Parts of this piece were in my column titled Niger Delta Amnesty published May 15.

  • Ex-militants to Buhari: appoint Amnesty Office head

    Ex-militants to Buhari: appoint Amnesty Office head

    Ex-Militant leaders, under the aegis of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiatives (LPCDI), have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to  appoint a Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta.

    A statement issued yesterday on behalf of the ex—militants by Pastor Reuben Wilson, reads: “We call on the President Buhari to immediately appoint a Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta. This call is sequel to the approval of the number of special advisers by the National Assembly requested by Mr. President and the impending crisis as a result of the vacancy.

    “We, therefore, write to implore Mr. President to quickly appoint a credible person as a special adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, which Hon. Kingsley Kuku just vacated. This request is coming on the ground that the absence of the SA/Chairman has hindered the payment of the monthly stipends to the beneficiaries both home and abroad.

    “Our brothers and sisters currently schooling abroad on the platform of the Presidential Amnesty Programme are suffering due to lack of funds as they are yet to receive their monthly allowances. There is presently a palpable tension in the Niger Delta region as a result of the non-payment of the monthly stipends for May to the Amnesty beneficiaries.

    “It is, therefore, in the interest of peace and stability in the Niger Delta that this situation be nipped in the bud by a speedy appointment of a credible person into the above office. We enjoin Mr. President to treat this matter with the urgency and seriousness it deserves.”

     

  • Army vs. Amnesty

    Army vs. Amnesty

    The true test of any democracy is its ability to regulate itself when situations so demand. It appears that Nigeria has arrived at this pass following the recent release of an Amnesty International (AI) report alleging wide-ranging perpetration of war crimes by the Nigerian military in its anti-insurgency operations against the militant Boko Haram movement.

    In a 133-page report titled Stars on Their Shoulders, Blood on Their Hands: War Crimes Committed by the Nigerian Military, the human rights body claims that over 1,200 people have been extra-judicially executed by soldiers or allied vigilante groups since February 2012. It also states that at least 20,000 people, mainly boys and young men, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained in inhuman conditions, resulting in at least 7,000 deaths. The anti-insurgency campaign, AI alleges, has been distinguished by “countless acts of torture” and enforced disappearances.

    Amnesty says its investigations took place between 2013 and 2015, and involved interviews with officers and men of the military, alleged victims and witnesses of military brutality, and visits to mortuaries where the corpses of deceased detainees were kept. It has named five senior officers of the Nigerian military whom it believes should be probed, and has forwarded its findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for further action.

    Nigeria’s military authorities have denounced the report, accusing AI of racism and bad faith. Its spokesmen have said that military operations have always been conducted with a view to minimising civilian casualties, and have pointed out that collateral damage is especially likely given the non-conventional nature of the conflict and the tactics of Boko Haram.

    These accusations are deeply troubling. Whether they are true or not, they imply the persistence of a disconcerting impunity and lack of accountability that has dogged the military in places like the Niger Delta and Plateau State. Prior to its six-week push in February 2015, the military campaign against Boko Haram was troubled by internal disciplinary issues which have seen dozens of court-martials and dismissals. Given the seriousness of the allegations, it is imperative that they be investigated thoroughly, completely and comprehensively.

    The allegations revolve around fundamental human rights issues which cannot be ignored by any nation that is genuinely interested in the welfare of its citizens. Long before local and international advocacy groups took notice, indigenes of north-east Nigeria were complaining about the military’s heavy-handedness, especially the way in which it demolished homes and carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions while searching for suspected militants. Such complaints deserve to be looked into on their own merit.

    There is also the fact that a more nuanced approach to the anti-insurgency campaign is likely to facilitate its lasting resolution. Repressive tactics by the military ultimately serve to help Boko Haram by attracting more people to their cause. The young men of the north-east must never be put in a situation where they feel that they have to choose between being maltreated by the military and fighting for Boko Haram.

    Rather than impugn the integrity of organisations like AI, Human Rights Watch and local human rights groups, the military would do well to cooperate in the investigation of these accusations. It is difficult to see what these organisations hope to gain from making false accusations against our military which, for all its faults, has been widely acknowledged for superlative peace-keeping performances around the world.

    Fortunately, the Buhari administration has reacted to the Amnesty report with a better attitude than its predecessor and has promised to look into it. Nothing less than the setting up of a high-powered investigative panel will suffice. It must be made up of distinguished citizens with backgrounds in the military, the judiciary and civil society, and must get to the truth of the matter, regardless of who is exposed.

     

  • Amnesty International’s gambit

    At a time attention seems to be focused on the new President, Muhammadu Buhari and what his tenure portends for the country, Amnesty International, AI, the global human rights watchdog, has raised a serious issue about the activities and conducts of the Nigerian military in the ongoing war against the Boko Haram terrorists in the North-east of the country.  And the damning report is already drawing the ire of the Nigerian public against the global body.

    Delivering its report titled: “Stars on their shoulders, Blood on their hands: War Crimes Committed by the Nigerian Military” at a press conference held in Abuja last Wednesday, AI said: “Since March 2011, more than 7,000 young men and boys died in military detention and more than 1,200 people were unlawfully killed since February 2012.” AI called for the investigation of certain senior officers and commanders in the Nigerian military, for allegedly participating in sanctioning or failing to prevent the deaths of more than 8,000 people in the course of the ongoing war in the North-east. The body then called on President Muhammadu Buhari to end the culture of impunity that has blighted Nigeria, and for the African Union, AU and the larger international community, to encourage and support efforts to “ensure the alleged perpetrators are brought to justice”.

    AI is not alone. The United Nations, UN, has also added its own voice. In a report issued at its headquarters in Geneva last Friday, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, the organisation’s top human rights official, asked the Nigerian president to investigate reports of horrifying crimes by Boko Haram terrorists and alleged abuses by the Nigerian military. He cited evidence gathered by his office on atrocities committed by Boko Haram and also said that the military too, had carried out a lot of human rights violations which need to be investigated. The only difference between the AI’s report and that of the UN is that rather than narrowing its own report to cover the military alone, the UN dwelt more on the heinous crimes committed by Boko Haram and probably did a balancing act by touching on the atrocities of the military as well.

    Since the AI report was made public, many prominent Nigerians and commentators on social media have taken the human rights body to the cleaners by accusing it of being one-sided and biased in its report. They have also demanded to know why, for instance, AI completely ignored the unspeakable bestiality, human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Boko Haram terror group itself. Based on past indictments by the global body which had become too frequent, the consensus of opinions is that AI has the habit of condemning the military, which has been trying to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria from the marauding antics of Boko Haram.

    The feelings of several Nigerians were reinforced by the military, which also dismissed the accusations by AI by calling them a witch-hunt and a deliberate attempt to tarnish the military’s image. In his reaction, Chris Olukolade, a Major General and the Director, Directorate of Information at the Defence Headquarters, condemned AI’s gruesome allegations against retired and serving senior Nigerian military personnel and the Armed Forces in general and described it as blackmail. According to him, “the action, no doubt, depicts more of a premeditated indictment aimed at discrediting the country for whatever purpose.” He stated that each of the allegations made in the past by the organization had been thoroughly responded to and cleared in the public domain and officially, adding that, the title of AI’s most recent report, down to the body of allegations, smacked of extreme bias, “which is disturbing, coming from an otherwise reputable organisation that is expected to be ‘just and fair’ to all.”

    This column cannot but agree with Olukolade that the AI report was one-sided. In a war, two parties are involved. In this case, you have the senseless, mindless and blood-thirsty Boko Haram terrorists, on the one hand and on the other hand, you have the Nigerian military fighting on behalf of Nigeria and Nigerians to return peace and normalcy to the affected areas. In actual fact, it is the Boko Haram leaders – Abubakar Shekau and his sponsors – who deserve to appear before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, to answer charges for human rights violation and other heinous crimes they have committed against humanity. These are people whose bestiality knows no bounds. They have slaughtered quite a number of innocent people, including pregnant women, old people, school children, infants and all that.

    For an upward of five gruesome years now, the country and particularly the military have been engaged in a fierce fight with these evil-minded terrorists. Operating under the guise of a pseudo-religious belief which has been variously described by adherents of Islam as purely heresy, the group has declared a total war in the North-east of the country. In the three most affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, both social and economic lives of the people have become comatose. Also, majority of the schools and other government establishments in these states have either been burnt down or have remained under lock and key as a result of the prevailing insecurity in the areas. Killing, maiming, arson and wanton destruction of lives and property have become the order of the day.  Many of the villages and cities in the affected states have been frequently invaded by the terrorists who randomly kidnapped young, innocent girls and taken to their stronghold known as Sambissa Forest, an expanse of land almost the size of Belgium. The unlucky ones were brutally killed with gunshots to the head or had their throats sliced like rams. Surprisingly, AI, now operating like the propaganda wing of Boko Haram, doesn’t seem to care a hoot about all these atrocities.

    From a rag-tag fighting force in 2009, the terrorists have since become more sophisticated and daring, deploying weapons of large scale violence including Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, and suicide bombers, among other lethal weapons. Till date, no one can rightly say anything about the fate that may have befallen the more than 230 Chibok school girls who were abducted from their school dormitories on the night of April 14, 2014.  Unfortunately, AI seems unperturbed about the plight of the Chibok girls. Instead, they have focused their binoculars on the military who are doing all they can to put these marauders in check.

    Mind you, this column is not trying to absolve the military of any wrongdoing or blame at all. We are all witnesses to the unnecessary and needless brutality usually meted out to innocent Nigerians by some overzealous elements in the nation’s military even at peace time. And it cuts across the entire gamut of the uniform services. It is obvious that Nigerians are incensed because with Buhari coming to power on the crest of a modest posture and popular support, expectations are high that the new President will enthrone good governance in the country and this will surely be the starting block for many good things to come. Therefore, they see the timing of AI’s allegations against the military, as an unnecessary distraction for the new president and the military establishment.

    At any rate, there is no smoke without fire. It is quite difficult to believe that Amnesty International just sat down and cooked up its report. In that case, we can only get to the root of this allegation by embarking on a painstaking investigation or public enquiry. Before then, the military should learn to adhere strictly to the rules of engagement so as to avoid this type of mess, now and in the nearest future.

    ‘In actual fact, it is the Boko Haram leaders – Abubakar Shekau and his sponsors – who deserve to appear before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, to answer charges for human rights violation and other heinous crimes they have committed against humanity’

  • Amnesty office appeals for calm over stipend

    THE Presidential Amnesty Office has appealed to former agitators in the Niger Delta to be calm and eschew any act that would disturb the peace of the region.

    In a statement, its Head of Media and Communications, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, said the appeal became necessary following the apprehension caused by the delay in the payment of last month’s stipends and in-training allowances to onshore and offshore beneficiaries of the programme.

    It explained that the delay was occasioned by the ongoing transition process at the federal level.

    It, however, assured beneficiaries that the funds for the stipends and other allowances of beneficiaries had been released and was intact but that the office was awaiting the required directive for disbursement in the absence of a substantive chairman of the programme or a Special Adviser to oversee the programme.

    It urged the former agitators to reciprocate the good gesture of President Muhammadu Buhari, who in his inauguration address on May 29, assured of investing heavily in the programme, by maintaining the peace at this time.

  • DHQ accuses Amnesty of blackmailing Badeh, military hierarchy

    DHQ accuses Amnesty of blackmailing Badeh, military hierarchy

    The Defence Headquarters on Wednesday accused Amnesty International of blackmailing the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh and the nation’s military hierarchy.

    It accused the rights watchdog of premeditated indictment aimed at discrediting the country for whatever purpose.

    The military said the Amnesty report has confirmed the organization’s alleged questionable interest in the counter-terrorism efforts in Nigeria.

    The DHQ, which made its position known in a statement in Abuja through the Director of Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, faulted Amnesty for relying on spurious and manipulated statistics.

    The statement said: “The Defence Headquarters has noted with dismay the gruesome allegations made by the Amnesty International against some senior military officers serving and retired of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

    “It is unfortunate that all efforts made in the allegation were geared towards continuation of blackmail against the military hierarchy in which the organization had embarked upon since the inception of military’s action against terrorist in the Northeast.

    “The officers mentioned in the report have no reason, whatsoever, to indulge in the allegation made against them.”

    The DHQ accused Amnesty of premeditated indictment to discredit Nigeria.

    It explained that all the allegations raised by the organization had been responded to and cleared in the public.