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Tag: amnesty

  • Amnesty wants Minimah, Ihejirika, Badeh tried for war crimes

    Amnesty wants Minimah, Ihejirika, Badeh tried for war crimes

    A global rights advocacy group, Amnesty International (AI) has accused the Nigerian military and some identified senior military personnel of engaging in “horrific rights abuses” in the prosecution of the on-going anti- terror war in the Northeast.

    The group, in a report released on Wednesday, sought urgent government’s intervention and the conduct of independent investigation into the activities of the military as captured in the report.

    Amnesty in the report titled: “Stars on their shoulders. Blood on their hands: War crimes committed by the Nigerian military,” 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.

    It said the report is based on years of research and analysis of evidence – including leaked military reports and correspondence, as well as interviews with more than 400 victims, eyewitnesses and senior members of the Nigerian security forces

    The group listed a range of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Nigerian military in the course of the fight against Boko Haram in the northeast.

    The report contained details of alleged roles and possible criminal responsibilities of those along the chain of command – up to the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff – and named nine senior Nigerian military figures who should be investigated for command and individual responsibility for the crimes committed.

    It stressed the need for an investigation into the individual and command responsibilities of soldiers, and mid-level and senior-level military commanders “for their potential involvement in crimes committed.

    Presenting the report in Abuja, two officials of Amnesty, Netsanet Belay and Anna Neistat gave the names of military personnel, whose roles the group urged the Federal Government to investigate, to include Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (Chief of Army Staff, between September 2010 and January 2014) and   Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim  (Chief of Defence Staff, from October  2012 – January  2014).

    Others are – Air Chief Marshal Badeh (Chief of Defence Staff, from January 2014 – till date) and Gen. Ken Minimah (Chief of Army Staff, from January 2014 – till date.)

    The rights watchdog equally sought the investigation of Major -Gen. John A.H. Ewansiha (former General Officer Commanding, Operation Restore Order 1 and Operation Boyoyo), Major –Gen. Obida T. Ethnan (former Commander of 7 Division), Major- Gen. Ahmadu Mohammed (former Commander 7 Division), Brigadier -Gen. Austin O. Edokpayi (former Commander, Multinational Joint Task Force based in Baga) and Brigadier- Gen. Rufus O. Bamigboye (former Commander, 21 Armoured Brigade stationed in Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri) for similar offences.

  • Disarmament, amnesty, pipeline contract review top SSLM demands

    The South-South Liberation Movement is one of the foremost militant groups involved in the Niger Delta struggle. In its heydays, the leader of the group, Comrade John Adie, boasted that it had over 25,000 youths undergoing training in the creeks of the region to be deployed to fight the perceived injustice meted on the oil-producing communities.

    But nearly a decade on, the group has evolved after denouncing the alleged hijack of the struggle by sea pirates and criminals who hid under the guise of agitation to amass wealth and unleash mayhem on national assets and hapless communities. To show its disapproval of the state of affairs in the region, SSLM leaders, Comrade John Adie and Comrade Ewerode joined force with the opposition All Progressive Congress in the fight to unseat the Peoples’ Democratic Party-led administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Arising from a post-election meeting held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital last weekend, the group gave the incoming APC-led Administration a list of critical areas to review in order to ensure lasting peace and security in the region.

    The National Coordinator and Secretary, Comrade John Adie and Goddy Ewerode, respectively, who visited The Nation’s office in Port Harcourt, with the resolution, expressed their solidarity with the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

    First, it urged the President-elect to set up a committee to check and identify communities and individuals who own illegal armouries, cache of weapons and ammunition in order to disarm, rehabilitate and integrate them into the society. The group’s leader warned that unless the illegal arms and ammunition in the region are consciously mopped up by the Federal Government, few individuals and communities would continue to hold the government to ransome.

    Adie, said the group resolved that there is a need to institute a “probe into alleged fraud in the Federal Government’s amnesty programme and the pipeline surveillance contracts awarded to former militant leaders by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    “The surveillance contract should be revisited to check the fraud associated with it. The surveillance contract was given to few individuals in the Niger Delta who were working for PDP. The lopsidedness in the surveillance contract has caused Nigeria a lot of problem; this has made some ethnic groups in the Niger Delta to blow pipelines. The contract should be awarded to all and sundry.

    “That the incoming APC Administration should look into the amnesty progamme and totally re-organized the amnesty programme because the real agitators were not given opportunities to participate in the Amnesty programme those benefiting from Amnesty today are common criminals, local hunters and local vigilantes who bought local arms and submitted  to participate in the Amnesty programme. Some are political Amnesty beneficiaries.

    “If this is not done the peace we are fighting for will elude us. Kinsley Kuku alone has about 4,000 slots to the detriment of others. All this cock and bull stories about the Amnesty is a big lie and a big deceit to the people of Niger Delta and the people of Nigeria at large. This group of cartel diverted the Amnesty budget to their pocket. We further demand that they should publish the names of persons trained abroad and within Nigeria and come up with the camp that they belonged to during the struggle because those that are on training today are brothers and sisters of these cartels,” Adie added.

    For his part, Ewerode explained that the SSLM was prepared to work with the incoming administration to realise the dream of a developed Niger Delta region and a better Nigeria, where corruption and fraud are treated as taboo rather than the norm in the society in line with the President-elect’s dream and vision for the country.

    To this end, the SSLM leaders said, “The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the Niger Delta Development commission NDDC should be re-structured with men and women of proven integrity appointed to manage them.

    “We also call on the incoming Administration to probe the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), an agency responsible for the regulation of the activities of Nigeria Shipping, Maritime, Labour and Coastal Water and the Federal Inland Revenue Service. These agencies stink with corruption and financial improprieties.”

    On the outcome of the March 28 and April 11 Presidential and State elections in the region, the group said the outcome did not reflect the wishes and desires of the people.

    “SSLM is the first group that started the organization for better development in the Niger Delta, before sea pirates and criminals came into the scene in the name of fighting for freedom in the Niger Delta. It was in view of our belief and conviction that Buhari means well for Nigeria that on November 7th 2014 we applied to the office of the National Chairman of the APC as an NGO/support group.”

    Nevertheless, they accused five of the six INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners in the six states of the South South zone of compromising their positions and blatantly working for PDP. They singled out the Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, Chief Mike Igini, as the only REC “who has proven to us again that he is worthy of his job.”

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  • Itsekiri groups seek Amnesty Programme’s review

    The leaderships of two Itsekiri ethnic organizations in Delta State, the Itsekiri National Development Initiative, and Itsekiri Amnesty Beneficiaries, have written to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President-elect Prof Yemi Osinbajo, on the need to review perceived unfair policies of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    The groups called for the review of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which they perceived as being unduly skewed in favour the President’s Ijaw kinsmen at the expense of other groups in the region.

    INDI, in the letter  by Comrade Dennis Mene and Tsaye Edeyibo, Chairman and Secretary, congratulated Gen. Buhari and Prof. Osinbajo “on their merited resounding and well-deserved victory” in the March 28 election.

    They said the incoming Number 1 and 2 citizens represent the virtues of integrity and consistency which the nation and all Nigerians needed at such a critical time as they facing.

    “We are confident that under your leadership, Nigeria will once again enthrone equity, justice and fairness so as to make room for peaceful co-existence. We pray that God would grant Gen. Buhari and his team the wisdom and understanding to elevate Nigeria to enviable heights among the comity of nations.”

    The group condemned perceived selective implementation of the amnesty programme by the outgoing administration, particularly its slant towards the president’s kinsmen to the detriment of other ethnic groups, particularly the Itsekiri ethnic group.

    “We frown at the selective implementation of the presidential Amnesty programme especially as it concerns the Itsekiri beneficiaries. The Itsekiri were given just 500 slots and less than 100 have been sent for their studies.

    “We have over 100 Itsekiri students with admissions to study in the United Kingdom for their Masters and PhD as well as 300 skilled and vocational, which up till date are yet to be sponsored; while it is on record that the Ijaws are regularly being sent for their studies/training overseas.

    “Among the beneficiaries 73 of them are yet to receive their monthly stipend from January to December 2013, although this has been brought to the attention of the Amnesty office, they have remained mute about it,” they added.

    Consequently, the INDI urged that “the incoming Buhari-led administration to investigate, review and restructure the current Presidential Amnesty Programme with a view to ensuring fair play, equity and justice for all beneficiaries under the programme so that maximum dividend of the programme will rebound to the advantage of the Nigerian Society.

    “We have no doubt that the incoming administration will entrust the programme into the hands of credible managers and persons of enviable integrity and moral rectitude. We do hope the remaining Itsekiri beneficiaries both educational and vocational yet to be trained will be trained in your administration.”

    Similarly, the group kicked against the purported expulsion of their kinsmen, Dr Alex Ideh, Hon Temi Harriman and Sunny Mene from the All Progressive Congress in Delta State, describing it as witch hunting of their kinsmen.

    “We warn those behind this dastardly to retrace their steps against the Itsekiri ethnic nationality.”

    Peter Tidi and Bokhan Otone of the Itsekiri Amnesty Beneficiaries while facilitating with Buhari and Osinbajo, on their well deserved victory, also called for a review of the amnesty programme to stop “victimisation of the Itsekiri amnesty beneficiaries.

    “We appeal to the incoming government to ensure full implementation of the Presidential Amnesty programme based on equity, justice and fair play. This is because the Itsekiri ethnic group has been unduly victimized in the programme so far.”

  • Ijaw/ Itsekiri’s stand on Amnesty Programme beyond May 29

    Their kinsman, President Goodluck Jonathan, lost his second term bid to retain the juiciest political position in Nigeria, but the ex-militants and their leaders are determined not to go down with him. They have resolved to work with the President-elect Muhammadu Buhari.

    Instead of resorting on their initial threats to destabilise country, the umbrella body of the ex-freedom fighters, Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI), was among the groups that congratulated Gen. Buhari and pledged to work with him.

    But the former creek warlords predicated their support on the sustenance of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. They said they would not dream of returning to the creeks or disrupting oil production as long as the incoming President retain the Amnesty Office and allow it to maintain the status quo.

    In fact, that was the idea behind the congratulatory message sent to Gen.Buhari by the National President, LPCDI, and former notorious militant leader, Pastor Reuben Wilson. The ex-militant leaders through Wilson hailed Buhari for his victory at the poll, but begged him not to abandon the amnesty programme of the Federal Government.

    He warned that there would be no peace in the region if the Presidential Amnesty Programme is neglected or abandoned. He further stated that, if the Niger Delta is neglected as it was in the past, the ex-militant would use every resource at their disposal to stop oil production.

    But few days after LPCDI presented a serious case backed by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) in favour of the continuation of the Amnesty Programme, a former Itsekiri warlord, Chief Ayiri Emami, urged Gen. Buhari to stop the programme. He even demanded a thorough probe of the operation of the programme. Emami argued that the use of arms in the name of a struggle should be treated as terrorism.

    He said: ”If the layman’s understanding of the word amnesty is anything to go by, then it presupposes an arrangement where militants who genuinely turn in all their arms and ammunition are rehabilitated, re-oriented and trained with a view to reintegrating them to everyday societal living.

    “In the ordinary sense of it, any person or group that picks up arms in the name of struggle or agitation ought to have been treated as terrorists, hence nobody or group should take the gesture of the federal government for granted.

    “Amnesty should not be continuous; partially giving out money to youths from a particular ethnic nationality is wrong, sending some of them abroad for training without any visible impact on the Niger Delta and the nation at large is counter-productive.”

    Undoubtedly, Emami stirred the Hornets’ comb. His counterparts are up in arms against him. Wilson, who represents the interests of many of the formerly dreaded ex-militants, immediately replied him. He appealed to Gen. Buhari to ignore him.

    He insisted that the call by Emami that the amnesty should be discontinued was made in bad faith and premised on his pathological hatred for the Ijaw nation.

    He insisted that the call was based on a misconception that the programme was benefitting only the Ijaw. Wilson, however, explained that the amnesty programme was designed for all the Niger Delta ex-militants.

    He said: “The amnesty is for all ex-freedom fighters, and if the Ijaws are in majority, it then means they were more actively involved than any other tribe in the Niger Delta liberation struggle.

    “Moreover, the Ijaws are in majority in the Niger Delta and the fourth largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria. Therefore, it is natural for the Ijaws to dominate the Presidential Amnesty Programme for ex-militants in the Niger Delta, owing to their population and active involvement in the Niger Delta struggle.”

    The way things stand, Gen. Buhari, except for a change of heart, may not scrap the programme. What may happen may be some form of re-organisation, which Wilson and others appear against. They seem to think the programme is perfect finish and should be left as the way it is.

    Post-May 29 will determine the programme’s fate.

  • Seven killed in Egyptian air strikes on Libyan city

    Seven civilians were killed when Egyptian jets attacked suspected Islamist militant targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna last week, Amnesty International has said, citing eyewitnesses.

    Egypt carried out air strikes last Monday against Islamic State targets, a day after the militant group released a video showing the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians, Reuters says.

    On Sunday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the air force had hit 13 targets selected after a careful study and reconnaissance “with precision” to avoid civilian casualties.

    But London-based Amnesty said in a report “new eyewitness testimonies indicate that the Egyptian Air Force failed to take the necessary precautions in carrying out an attack which killed seven civilians in a residential neighborhood in the Libyan city of Derna on February 16.”

    “Egypt has now joined the ranks of those placing civilians at risk in Libya,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International. “The killing of seven civilians, six of them in their own homes, must be investigated, as it appears to have been disproportionate.”

    Amnesty said Egyptian jets had mostly hit military targets in Derna but witnesses had said that two missiles had struck densely populated residential areas near the city’s university.

    “One missile struck a four-storey house belonging to the al-Kharshoufi family, killing a mother and her three children aged between three and eight, and injuring their father and another child,” Amnesty said.

    “A second missile hit a street in between civilian houses, causing three other deaths,” the group added.

    Egypt’s foreign ministry and army spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment.

     

  • Ijaws, GEJ & amnesty

    Sir, It would be most ironic that the socio-economic problems that pushed the Niger Delta youths to the creeks to take up arms against the Federal Government are still largely unaddressed. Jonathan’s predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, in 2009, declared amnesty for the Niger Delta insurgents. He also created the first ever Federal Ministry for Niger Delta Affairs. Amnesty office was subsequently created, all in a bid to end unrest which had rocked and claimed the soul of the region. That amnesty programme as it is today has become a mere conduit pipe for siphoning public fund by those directly in charge. The programme after Jonathan’s  six years today is the turning of few ambitious Ijaw youths and some Niger Delta militant kingpins into over-night millionaires at the expense of the entire Ijaw ethnic group and the Niger Delta as a whole.

    The Ijaw man over the years had articulated his existence on hard work, creative energy and positive agitation for proper recognition in the Nigerian state. But the message of President Jonathan’s amnesty to his Ijaw kinsman is that all he needs do to become a millionaire, is not to study or work hard but to be an appendage or a relative of those directly in charge of execution of the programme of amnesty.  This is the extent to which Jonathan’s amnesty has devalued the values of an Ijaw man. It has deflated his cultural pride of dignity inherent in labour and personal achievement through sheer hard work. The hard-working Ijaw professionals dare not stand where the amnesty boys, ‘repentant militants’, display their emergency wealth, which they flaunt in naked worship of material vanity. This dangerous trend must be reversed by the electorates. They only can and the time is now.

    The Niger Delta of today is plagued by more violence and insecurity of life;  youths are being shipped abroad in droves, some to expensive Nigerian private universities, to be trained by the amnesty office at prodigal expense as if lack of training or lack of education is the problem with the Niger Delta youths, a region which has produced many good brains in the field of arts, even in the face of  the many odds of their time.

    The Ijaw man ought to know by now that Jonathan’s government is an ill-will that blows them no good. The Ijaws, who alone do not constitute the Niger Delta region, should be saddened that they really wasted a rare opportunity to showcase a quality leadership precedence in the art of governance for the last six years in the country. Although this will expectedly not go well with those who benefit from nepotistic amnesty booties of the Jonathan presidency, it is years after Jonathan would have left government that the sober ones among the Ijaws who do not partake in this infamy will realize that their kinsman has succeeded in raising dust by dancing around like a masquerade without moving the region forward. This is a historical monumental loss.

     

    Tope Temokun,

  • Amnesty calls for UN sanctions, war crimes probe in Libya

    Rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday called for United Nations sanctions and investigations into possible war crimes in Libya to end a cycle of abductions and summary killings by rival armed factions.

    An Amnesty report released on Wednesday focused on Benghazi, where an alliance of Islamist militants and ex-rebels, known as Shura Council, has battled for months with forces allied to army General Khalifa Haftar, who declared war on Islamist extremists.

    The battle over Benghazi is part of a wider conflict involving two major factions and their competing governments struggling for control of the North African state and its oil resources four years after civil war ousted Muammar Gaddafi, Reuters reports.

    London-based Amnesty said tthe fighting in Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya, involved tit-for-tat attacks, abductions, summary killings and torture by each side.

    “Benghazi has steadily descended into chaos and misrule. The city has been ripped apart by spiralling violence waged by rival groups and their supporters seeking vengeance,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, a regional deputy director for Amnesty.

    Amnesty’s statement called for an international demonstration of will to investigate war crimes and hold perpetrators accountable as a way to end impunity.

    Amnesty called on the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes on those responsible for violations. It said the International Criminal Court should also expand its probe into war crimes.

    The body accused both forces from the Shura Council and fighters allied to Haftar’s Operation Dignity of carrying out abductions and assassinations for political motives.

  • APC: How Jonathan betrayed Niger Delta on amnesty

    APC: How Jonathan betrayed Niger Delta on amnesty

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said President Goodluck Jonathan betrayed the Niger Delta people by refusing to fully implement the agreement signed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, as part of the amnesty deal to end the Niger Delta crisis.

    It said the choice of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the vice presidential candidate was a choice made by God to scuttle the plans of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to use the Muslim/Muslim ticket as a campaign weapon against the APC.

    The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Timi Frank, told reporters that the people of the Niger Delta were disappointed that their son failed to fully implement an agreement signed by the Yar’adua government to transform the Niger Delta, but only chose to implement one aspect of the agreement.

    He said the people of the Niger Delta, especially the Ijaw, were impoverished under the Jonathan government than under any northern President.

    His words: “Under the Jonathan government, the Ijaw have become impoverished and undermined than under a northern President. I can tell you how we got the amnesty programme. Some of the things that were agreed upon as part of that programme have not been implemented.

    “It is not just sending people abroad for training that is the amnesty agreement. If you don’t know, I can tell you this because I was involved and I know everything. If you have the time and wants me to say it, I will say it because some of these things are what they are hiding and don’t want the public to know. I’m not scared of anything. I must speak the truth.

    “If they had gone to tell the ex-militants and our people to come out and drop their guns so that they will be trained, none of them would have done that. There were some other bigger agreements that Umaru signed.

    “There is a signed document on that. There were promises that were made by Umaru because he did not just make it as a promise. He made those promises because he wanted to do them for the people of the Niger Delta, as he felt this was his right and was determined to resolve the crisis.

    “But today, as I speak, all of those, under their son from Bayelsa, from the Niger Delta, have been buried. I understand that when they discussed some of these things that Umaru signed with the President, he kicked them away, telling them he wouldn’t do it.

    “Tell me, how can any credible Niger Delta man vote for him?

    “There was an agreement between Umaru and the people of the Southsouth to build mass housing units in the states of the Niger Delta, to compensate them. Today, where is the mass housing units?

    “Today, where is the coastal road Umaru promised our people, assuring that he would award the contract as soon as the militants came out of the creeks? As we speak, the coastal road is not there because the government said they don’t have money to do that.

    “So, if somebody from the North could give us these kind of promises we have never seen before and he was determined and ready to do it and died in the process and an Ijaw took over that office, the first thing the people of the region expect him to do is to hide under those promises and do those things with the excuse that he was not the one that made the promise, but the man before him and that he is only following his footsteps, but not to come and do worse.

    “There is a time bomb in our region because if the local people do not get what belongs to them, there is a problem. I have confidence that if today, Jonathan wins Bayelsa State, it will be by rigging and not by votes.”

  • Ex-militants allege fraud in amnesty fund

    A group of Niger Delta ex-militants in Akwa Ibom State, under the aegis of Ukanafun Freedom fighters, have written to President Goodluck Jonathan  and  the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged withholding of their monthly allowances.

    Ukanafun Freedom fighters were among the ex-militants who embraced Federal Government Amnesty programme and also participated in different training both within the country and abroad. They however lamented that their allowances were yet to be paid several months after they completed training. The leader of the group hinted of possible of fraud and an abuse of amnesty programme.

    Speaking with Niger Delta Report in Port Harcourt, the leader of the group, Mbang Friday Odudu, who spoke on behalf of Etim Sunday, Idiong Ndifreke, Daniel Monday Uduak and other aggrieved members of the group, expressed worry over the attitude of the Amnesty Office.

    Odudu said many of his members died due to lack of assistance to cater for their needs.  He said the group may be forced to go back to the dark days if they could not put food on their tables.

     

  • Amnesty: Israeli strikes on Gaza ‘war crimes’

    Israeli air strikes on four high-rise buildings in the final days of this summer’s conflict in Gaza amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International says.

    Evidence suggested the destruction was “carried out deliberately and with no military justification”, a new report by the human rights group found.

    It called for an independent and impartial investigation to be opened.

    Israel said the report made unfounded allegations and ignored Hamas’ use of the buildings for military purposes.

    In a statement, the Israeli embassy in London said Amnesty should be investigating the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians instead.

    The 50-day conflict in Gaza between Israel and militant groups led by Hamas left at least 2,189 Palestinians dead, including more than 1,486 civilians, according to the UN, and 11,000 injured. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed, with scores more wounded.

    During the last four days before a ceasefire came into effect, Israeli warplanes dropped large bombs on four buildings – the 12-storey Zafer 4 Tower, the 16-storey Italian Complex and the 13-storey al-Basha Tower in Gaza City, and the four-storey Municipal Commercial Centre in Rafah.

    Amnesty acknowledged that in all four cases no-one was killed because the Israeli military took measures to ensure residents left the building before they were destroyed – by telling some in telephone calls to evacuate, and also firing “knock-on-the-roof” warning missiles.

    But the group said scores of people from nearby buildings were injured and that hundreds were devastated to lose their homes, businesses and belongings.

    Amnesty said the Israeli authorities had provided no information as to why they destroyed the four buildings, other than the suggestion that one of the destroyed buildings housed a Hamas command centre and “facilities linked to Palestinian militants” in another.

    The strike on the Italian Complex – which contained about 50 flats – caused one side of the tower to collapse

    “Both the facts on the ground and statements made by Israeli military spokespeople at the time indicate that the attacks were a collective punishment against the people of Gaza and were designed to destroy their already precarious livelihoods.”

    The Israeli embassy in London criticised Amnesty’s report.