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 June 6, 2016; titled: “How Over 90 Biafran Heroes Day Activists Were Massacred By Security Forces & Buried In Military Cemetery Inside Onitsha Army Barracks”. The link to the special publication under reference is: (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/international-society-for-civil.html)
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 8 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.
Biafran Heroes Day massacre: The facts
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 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.
Governor Willie Obiano’s crocodile tears
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 August 30, 2015 and May 30, 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 August 30, 2015, over 13
killed in Onitsha on December 2, 2015, over nine killed in Onitsha on
December 17, 2015 and over 120 massacred in Onitsha and Asaba on May 30, 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 January 18
and 29, 2016 and February 9, 2016.
We, therefore, consider Governor
Willie Obiano’s promise to “offset the hospital bills of the wounded” in the
genocidal massacre of May 30, 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”.
Recommendations
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, June
1, 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, June
1, 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 May 30, 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 paid an initial compensation of N5 million; while each
of the families of the 130 wounded citizens must be paid an initial
compensation of N2 million 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 August 30th 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
(Duke Ellington and his Orchestra plays “Blood count”, a composition by Billy Strayhorn [personnel: Ellington, piano; Cootie Williams, trumpet; Cat Anderson, trumpet; Herbie Jones, trumpet; Clark Terry, fluegelhorn; Lawrence Brown, trombone; Buster Cooper, trombone; Chuck Connors, bass trombone; Johnny Hodges, alto saxophone; Russell Procope, alto saxophone; Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone; Harry Carney, baritone saxophone; Aaron Bell, bass; Steve Little, drums; recorded: RCA Studio A, New York, US, 28 August 1967/15 November 1967])
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