103rd birthday of Billy Strayhorn

(Born 29 November 1915, Dayton, Ohio, US)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

RENOWNED composer, pianist and arranger whose near 30 years (1938-1967) of collaborative work with composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington has been the focus of expansive recordings, research and publications

(Charles Mingus Sextet, featuring Eric Dolphy, plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])

(Joe Henderson Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Johnny come lately” [personnel: Henderson, tenor saxophone; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Stephen Scott, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Gregory Hutchinson, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ, US,  3-8 September 1991])

(John Coltrane Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Lush life” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Donald Bryd, trumpet; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Louis Hayes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 10 January 1958)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

102nd birthday of Billy Strayhorn

(Born 29 November 1915, Dayton, Ohio, US)

RENOWNED composer, pianist and arranger whose near 30 years (1938-1967) of collaborative work with composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington has been the focus of expansive recordings, research and publications

(Charles Mingus Sextet, featuring Eric Dolphy, plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])

(Joe Henderson Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Johnny come lately” [personnel: Henderson, tenor saxophone; Wynton Marsalis, trumpet; Stephen Scott, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Gregory Hutchinson, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ, US,  3-8 September 1991])

(John Coltrane Quintet plays the Billy Strayhorn classic, “Lush life” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Donald Bryd, trumpet; Red Garland, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Louis Hayes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, US, 10 January 1958)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

FWD: International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law & Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations report on jihadist Nigerian military as it reinforces its occupation of Biafra, issued Sunday 4 December 2016

******{Entire report published here as in the original without editing – Rethinking Africa}

Ref: Intersociety/SBCHROs/12/2016/SE/Public-Office-Holders/SE/NG

From: Intersociety/SBCHROs, Onitsha-Nigeria, 4^th of December 2016

To:

1. His Excellency, Mr. Willie M. Obiano

Executive Governor of Anambra State

The Governor’s Office, Government House

Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria

2. His Excellency, Mr. Okezie Ikpeazu, PhD

Executive Governor of Abia State

Office of the Governor, Abia State Government House

Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria

3. His Excellency, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi

Executive Governor of Enugu State

The Governor’s Office, Enugu State Government

Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria

4. His Excellency, Mr. Dave Umahi

Executive Governor of Ebonyi State

Office of the Ebonyi State Governor, Ebonyi Government House

Abakiliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

5. His Excellency, Mr. Anayo Rochas Okorocha

Executive Governor of Imo State

Office of the Governor, Imo State Government House

Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

6. Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu

Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Office of the Deputy Senate President

The National Assembly Complex, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria

Your Excellencies/Distinguished Senator

An Urgent Call To Southeast Public Office Holders: Before The Jihadist Nigerian Army Collapses The Ailing Onitsha Niger Bridge And Turns Igbo Land Into A German Concentration Camp In The Guise Of “Operation Python Dance”

The leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (abbreviated as INTERSOCIETY) respectfully writes, in conjunction with the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs), to draw the urgent attention of Your Excellencies and Distinguished Senator as it concerns a clear case of army of occupation by Jihadist elements in the present Nigerian Army in the Southeast Geopolitical Zone or Igbo Land as well as orchestrated plans by them to collapse the 51years Old Onitsha Niger Bridge, a major gateway to Igbo Land.

We make bold to say that the ulterior motives behind the referenced despicable and condemnable operations are for the purpose of Jihadism and Ethnic Cleansing. Others are to cause social and economic strangulation of the Southeast Zone and collapse of Onitsha Niger Bridge built since 1965; for the purpose of cutting off the Igbo Land from the rest of the country; using the Southeast Roads as illegitimate money making venture by way of collection of illegal roadblock tolls and extortion; depriving the Christian dominated Peoples of the Southeast and the South-south Zones particularly those living outside the Zones of their sacred and constitutionally guaranteed rights to worship their Christian Religion and commemorate the birth of their Savior Jesus Christ by blocking and torturing them from returning to their ancestral homes by way of total blockage of the ailing Niger Bridge and deliberate creation of indiscriminate roadblocks; pushing the law abiding Igbo Race to the wall and forcing them to adopt radical reprisal approaches to pave way for full blown genocidal Jihadism against the  Race.

It is recalled that on Monday, 28^th of November 2016, the Nigerian Army, dominated by Jihadist elements; dubiously announced the mass deployment of troops and equipment to all strategic roads and commercial centers including motor parks in Igbo Land, in the guise of “Operation or Exercise Python Dance”; saying it is targeting “MASSOB, IPOB, Fulani Herdsmen, Kidnappers and Armed Robbers”. Before the dubious announcement, the Southeast or Igbo Land was laid under siege with not less than one hundred military and navy roadblocks and not less than 1000 police roadblocks scattered on all strategic roads and routes in the Zone. The link below contains the first army statement under reference: http://newsexpressngr.com/news/31295-Army-reads-Riot-Act-to-IPOB-MASSOB-herdsmen-others.

In response, the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs) and the Intersociety issued a joint statement, dated 30^th of November 2016, condemning in its entirety and totality the action of the Jihadist Nigerian Army. The said statement of ours triggered off public outcries and more informed reactions; forcing the army through its 82^nd Division in Enugu to issue another contradictory, defenseless and watery statement; claiming professionalism and routine in-service exercise. The link below contains the second army statement, issued on Friday, 2^nd December 2016: http://www.newsexpressngr.com/news/31490-Army-clears-air-over-operation-Python-Dance-in-South-East-16. In all these, the more the Jihadist army tries to justify its claims behind the atrocious operations, the more its ulterior motives are exposed.

We have, contrary to the claims of the Jihadist Army, investigated, found and come out with the following 37-Points Of Facts; shaming, rubbishing and exposing the false claims and ulterior motives of the Jihadist Nigerian Army and the Police:

(1) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army raised false insecurity alarms in the Southeast with ulterior or dubious intents

(2) that street protests are not armed rebellion or traditional street crimes of kidnapping, armed robbery or murder, etc

(3) that IPOB and MASSOB are not armed opposition groups waging war against the Federal Republic of Nigeria or any part thereof

(4) that Southeast Zone is the most peaceful Zone to live in Nigeria; as clearly attested to by a recent UN Report and it is not a war zone or a zone at war with the Federal Government or Federal Republic of Nigeria

(5) that there are no security threats of unprecedented proportion or Northeast magnitude in the Southeast Zone warranting the present military siege or police state in the Zone

(6) that  the Jihadist Nigerian Army is crude and an illiterate army with no knowledge of the meaning and definition of Rules of Engagement

(7) that  the Jihadist Nigerian Army has  continued to criminalize and stigmatize the non-violent activities of IPOB to the point of saddening and alarming proportions

(8) that while the Southeast, which is a Zone in peace and non-war Zone is being hunted, persecuted and pushed to the wall; the troubled Zones like Northeast and violent groups like the Fulani Janjaweed are being cuddled, petted and protected (i.e. see military roadblocks along Umuahia-Aba Federal Road and blanket protections provided to Fulani cattle rearers and their herds of cattle where cattle are valued more than lives of road users on Southeast Roads)

(9) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army and its Commander-in-Chief are killing, wounding, torturing and persecuting citizens of the Southeast Zone that have chosen non-violence and law-abiding living; whereas violent entities and Zones including Boko Haram and Fulani Janjaweed are being rewarded and given presidential treat and protection

(10) that there are no credible official crime statistics from the Nigeria Police Force in the Southeast Zone, detailing the patterns and trends of violent crimes such as kidnapping and armed robbery in the Zone; showing increase or decrease; warranting the involvement of the  Jihadist Nigerian Army in the flooding of the Zone with troops and weapons

(11) that soldiers are not professionally trained to catch kidnappers and armed robbers or arsonists or burglars or rapists; or engage in fighting street crimes and they do not have mental and ICT expertise to do same

(12) that hiding under the guise of “fighting kidnappers and armed robbers” as a cover to actualize their Jihadist intents have been exposed and shamed

(13) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army resorted to such useless and mockery excuses as a cover to execute their Jihadist and ethnic cleansing operations

(14) that the use of Fulani Herdsmen by the Jihadist Nigerian Army as one of the excuses for invasion of the Southeast is deliberate and a further cover to be hidden under to perpetrate its planned unprovoked war or mass killing and torture mission

 (15) that the Fulani Janjaweed or Herdsmen have massacred over 140 defenceless Christians in Southern Kaduna alone, in the past six months; yet the  Army turns  blind eyes; likewise similar massacring of hundreds of others in Agatu (Benue State), Nimbo (Enugu State), Akokwa (Imo State), Asaba and its environs (Delta State) and reported ongoing massacre  in Abia communities of Abia State, etc; with the  Jihadist Nigerian Army looking the other way; but wasting unnecessary energy and weaponry chasing, massacring, wounding, torturing and persecuting defenceless Igbo-Christians in furtherance of its Jihadist and ethnic cleansing

(16) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army operation by way of total blockage of the 51 years Old Onitsha Bridge; a major gateway to Igbo Land, is solely meant to collapse and sink the Bridge so as to cut the Southeast Zone off from the rest of the country; when it ought to know that the Bridge critically needs round-the-clock decongestion and lesser traffic gridlock especially in this critical festive period

(17) that the operations of the Jihadist Nigerian Army are deliberately commenced this crucial festive period in Igbo Land so as to punish, torture and persecute the Igbo Race for being predominant Christians and deprive them of their sacred rights to commemorate the birth of their Saviour Jesus Christ

(18) that the Army operations are also meant to strangulate the Igbo Race or Southeast Zone socially, culturally and economically

(19) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army operations commenced in this crucial festive period in Igbo Land are geared towards creation of a sort of “Concentration Camp” by way of total blockage of the Onitsha Niger Bridge; particularly along Asaba-Niger Bridge and Niger Bridge-Onitsha Upper Iweka axis by trapping and jam-packing thousands of Xmas returnees with their families and livestock and other perishable items, so as to get them suffocated, fainted or died in their large numbers

(20) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army operations are also in crude and shameless response to the recent Amnesty International Report on massacre of at least 150 Pro Biafra Campaigners by the Jihadist Army; a confirmation of Intersociety’s earlier findings of the massacre by army and others of at least 250 non-violent and unarmed Pro Biafra campaigners between July/August 2015 and May 2016

(21) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army’s response is in the form of show of shame, force and impunity

(22) that the Jihadist Nigerian Army operations are designed to inflict the Igbo Race with psychological torture and permanently treat them as a conquered people and further massacre them on  the road with impunity in addition to over 250 unarmed and defenceless Igbo citizens and over 300 others it massacred or terminally wounded since July/August 2015

(23) that the Army operations are purely an army of occupation designed to occupy the Southeast permanently with attendant atrocious and butchery outcomes

 (24) that Intersociety and SBCHROs’ reason for referring to the Nigerian Army as “Jihadist Nigerian Army” particularly in the Southeast Zone, follows total takeover and domination of its command and rank and file by officers and citizens of northern Muslim background or Hausa-Fulani hegemony who are filled with intolerance, crude and butchery mindsets; whereby the GOC of the 82^nd Division in Enugu: Major Gen Ibrahim Attahiru; the Deputy Army Spokesman of the 82^nd Division: Col Sagir Musa and his predecessor, Col Hamza Gambo; the Commandant of the 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, Col Isa Abdullahi Maigari; the leader of the military massacre operation of 29^th and 30^th of May 2016 at Nkpor, Onitsha and Asaba; Major M.I. Ibrahim of the Military Police;  and the Commander of the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army at Ukwa in Abia State; Lt Col Kasim Sidi Umar; who spearheaded the 9^th of February 2016 massacre of over 30 IPOB members in Aba, are all from Hausa-Fulani Muslim background; likewise domination of other strategic command positions and over 70% of the rank and file or combatants by citizens of northern Muslim background

(25) that another ulterior motive behind the Jihadist Nigerian Army operations in Igbo Land or Southeast Zone is for the purpose of criminal enrichment or illegitimate pocketing of hundreds of millions of naira from the Southeast Roads by way of organized road crime or roadblock extortion through open and closed sources

(26) that recent update of the Intersociety on road crimes committed by police and military personnel (i.e. army and navy) clearly showed that there are not less than 200 military roadblocks and 1000 police roadblocks on Southeast Roads as at 4^th of December 2016

(27) that in those roadblocks, various forms of extortion are applied to rob the motorists and other road users at official gunpoint

(28) That while soldiers and navy use structured form of extortion (i.e. hiring of civilians or garage touts to forcefully collect tolls on their behalf), the police use open method or direct extortion at gunpoint

(29) that the choice of Southeast Roads is because of its blue-collar nature or high commercial and cash transactions

(30) that as a result, the Jihadist Nigerian Army commanders and their foot soldiers in the Southeast Zone; with transmission of routine monthly brown envelopes (returns) to their superiors in Abuja; collectively and crookedly smile to bank on daily basis with tens of millions of naira derived from roadblock extortion

(31) that empirical evidence at our investigative disposal shows that the Nigeria Police in the Southeast Zone and its Roads had in the past 14 months or between October 2015 and December 2016, criminally collected and pocketed a total of N9.1Billion from roadblock extortion on Southeast Roads

(32) that our updated checks as at today show that there are not less than 250 police roadblocks on Anambra’s Federal and State Roads as well as its city roads and that each police roadblock extorts minimum of N50 note and average of N100 note from each commercial motorist; translating to at least N30,000  for each police roadblock; N7.5million daily from not less than 250 police roadblocks; N225million monthly and N2.7Billion per year

(33) that the same facts and circumstances are applicable to Abia State; another major blue-collar State after Anambra State; with its 250 police roadblocks criminally pocketing N2.7Billion per year

(34) that Imo State; a lesser blue-collar State, has at least 200 police roadblocks to its name; with each police roadblock pocketing not less than N15,000 daily; N3Million for its 200 police roadblocks per day, N90Million per month and N1.08Billion per annum

(35) that Enugu and Ebonyi States with relatively white-collar or civil service sub culture, have at least 300 police roadblocks to their names on average of 150 each; and each of the police roadblock criminally pockets at least N15,000 pay day and N4.5Million for the 300 police roadblocks per day; N135Million per month and N1.62Billion per year; on average of N810Million for each of the two States

(36) that in all, the police personnel at over 1000 police roadblocks mounted on Southeast Roads have between January 2016 and December 2016 criminally collected and pocketed from Southeast commercial road users a total of N8.1Billion; with Anambra State accounting for N2.7Billion; Abia State N2.7billion; Imo State N1.08Billion; Enugu State N810Million; and Ebonyi State N810Million

(37) that added to N1.03Billion criminally collected and pocketed between 21^st October and 21^st December 2015 by not less than 750 police roadblocks then on Southeast Roads; the total roadblock theft by the Nigeria Police Force in the past 14 months from Southeast Roads is N9.13Billion

Demands 
In view of the foregoing, therefore, we boldly demand:

1. That the Southeast Public Office Holders particularly the elected Governors of Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi States and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu should proactively rise to the occasion and take firm charge as the Chief Security Officers and Highest Legislative Officer of the Southeast Zone.

2. That in view of the Chief of Army Staff’s Conference kicking off in Owerri, Imo State from tomorrow being Monday, 5^th of December 2016, expected to last for days; the above mentioned public office holders should make maximum use of the opportunity to register their strong displeasure and disapproval against unwarranted militarization of the Southeast or Igbo Land by Buratai-led Jihadist Nigerian Army.

3. That the COAS, Lt Gen Turkur Buratai should be boldly engaged and asked to explain the rationale behind out-right domination of the command structure of the Nigerian Army in the Southeast as well as its rank and file by officers and citizens of Hausa-Fulani Muslim background.

4. That the COAS must be made to reverse the dangerous trend and de-Hausanize the art of combatant or infantry soldiering in the Southeast Zone or Igbo Land.

5. That the COAS must be told in strong and unmistakable language that Southeast will no longer condone and tolerate the age-long maltreatment by Nigerian Army as “a conquered territory and people”

6. That the Southeast Public Office Holders above mentioned should meet President Muhammadu Buhari with a fluent Hausa Language interpreter to demand his inexplicable hostility towards the Igbo Land and Igbo Race and prevail on him to demilitarize the Southeast Zone.

7. That the Southeast Public Office Holders must insist during the COAS visit to Imo that he must order for the de-blockage of the ailing Onitsha Niger Bridge before he leaves the Igbo Land so as to save the Bridge from imminent collapse and facilitate free movement of people and vehicular particularly during Xmas and New Year period.

8. That we understand that the said Jihadist Army commanders including the Commandant of Onitsha 302 Artillery, Col Isa Abdullahi Maigari and the 82^ndDivision Deputy Army Spokesman, Col Sagir Musa visited the ailing Niger Bridge this morning (Sunday, 4^th December 2016) between 10.30am and 11.30am following our advocacy pressures and “offered to reduce the blockage for their safety”; this we totally reject and insist on total removal of all the military drums and freeing and decongesting of the all routes into and out of the ailing Bridge. This is a matter of must; not palliative or adhoc.

9. That the COAS must be prevailed upon to order his “Dogari” combatants at the ailing Niger Bridge to disappear from the centre of the roads linking the ailing Bridge and retire to tents built for them beside the Ojukwu Statue to watch over people and vehicular movements

10. That the Southeast Public Office Holders under reference should firmly engage the COAS, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Inspector General of Police concerning the extortionist and other criminal activities of their personnel deployed to Southeast Roads; for the purpose of abolishing all forms of criminal tolls or roadblock extortions.

11. That all the military and police roadblocks on Southeast Roads should be reduced to 5%, if not total abolition because empirical evidence has clearly shown that the more increase in military and police roadblocks in the Zone, the more increase in State-actor and non-State actor crimes (i.e. steady increase in Fulani Janjaweed attacks despite indiscriminate security roadblocks)

12. That the Southeast Public Office Holders under reference should set up a joint commission of enquiry to look into the army led massacre of not less than 250 Pro-Biafra Campaigners as well as killings by the Fulani Janjaweed or armed Herdsmen in various parts of the Southeast Zone or Igbo Land

Yours in the Service to Humanity

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman

International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety)

Mobile Line: +2348174090052

Email: info@intersociety-ng.org

Chinwe Umeche, Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program

Mobile Line: +2347013238673

Obianuju Igboeli, Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Mobile Line: +2348180771506

Co-Signed By:

1.  Comrade Aloysius Attah (+2348035090548)

For: Civil Liberties Organization, Southeast Zone

2. Comrade Vincent Ezekwume (+2348171793911)

For: Civil Liberties Organization, Anambra State Branch

3.  Comrade Peter Onyegiri (+2347036892777)

For: Center for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy

4.  Comrade Samuel Njoku (+2348039444628)

For: Human Rights Organization of Nigeria

5.  Engineer Rufus Duru (+2348037513519)

For: Global Rights & Development International

6. Comrade Chike Umeh ( +2348064869601)

For: Society Advocacy Watch Project

7. Obianuju  Igboeli, Esq. (+2348034186332)

For: Anambra Human Rights Forum

8. Comrade Alex Olisa(+2348034090410)

For: Southeast Good Governance Forum

9.  Jerry Chukwuokoro, PhD (+2348035372962)

For: International Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights Initiative

10.  Tochukwu Ezeoke (+447748612933)

For: Igbo Ekunie Initiative (Pan Igbo Rights Advocacy Group)

Note: This letter is communicated through closed and open modes; meaning that it has both enveloped and open versions with same contents meant for its specific recipients.

(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])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

101st birthday of Billy Strayhorn

(Born 29 November 1915, Dayton, Ohio, US)

Renowned composer, pianist and arranger whose near 30 years (1938-1967) of collaborative work with composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington has been the focus of expansive recordings, research and publications

(Charles Mingus Sextet, featuring Eric Dolphy, plays the Billy Strayhorn classic composition, “Take the ‘A’ train” [Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Dolphy, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums; recorded: live, University Aula, Oslo, 12 April 1964])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Nine human rights organisations issue joint report on Muhammadu Buhari’s regime after one year in office: 4,500 people in Nigeria and Nigeria-occupied Biafra have been murdered by regime and pro-regime forces during the period

The following nine human rights organisations, which constitute the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs), have published a report on the Muhammadu Buhari regime one year after coming to power. The organisations are :

1. Anambra State Branch of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO)

2. Center for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy (CHRPA)

3. Human Rights Club (a project of LRRDC)(HRC)

4. Forum for Justice, Equity & Defense of Human Rights (FJEDHR)

5. Society Advocacy Watch Project (SPAW)

6. Anambra Human Rights Forum (AHRF)

7. Southeast Good Governance Forum (SGGF)

8. International Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights Initiative (INTERSOLIDARITY)

9. Igbo Ekunie Initiative (pan Igbo rights advocacy group)

and their report is as follows:

President Muhammadu Buhari’s one year old presidency has been marked by turbulence grounded in presidential violence and dictatorship of alarming proportion. 

Borrowing from Intersociety’s updated grounded  statistics, over 4500 innocent and unarmed citizens have been killed since June 2015 following the swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s sixth civil President on 29^th of May 2015; out of which over 1300  were killed by the security forces under conditions and manners unknown to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, relevant regional and international rights and humanitarian treaties entered into by Nigeria as well as other  key provisions of international law including the basic standards of the international law and the principles and purposes of the United Nations.

Over 3200 others were killed by violent non State actors whose violent activities are condoned, aided and abetted by the Buhari’s Presidency (i.e. Fulani Janjaweed). In all these, the Presidency of Gen Muhammadu Buhari is personally and vicariously culpable, following its refusal, till date, to fish out the perpetrators including its serving security chiefs and bring them to justice. Others who died untimely following harsh economic, governance and security policies of the Buhari administration in the past one year are in their thousands.

(Muhammadu Buhari: in the past year, June 2015-20 June 2016, according to this report, the Buhari regime and non state violent forces  
“abetted by the [regime] i.e. Fulani Janjaweed” have murdered “4500 innocent and unarmed citizens” in Nigeria and Nigeria-occupied Biafra)

Apart from the presidential violence of alarming proportion unleashed on Nigerians, the lives, liberties and self determination endowments of all Nigerians are violently dictated and eroded by the Presidency of Gen Muhammadu Buhari. Over 98% policies of the Buhari administration are utterly vindictive, primordial, selective, discriminatory, sectional and enemy prone. The list of such harsh policies is in-exhaustive; from anti corruption to security policies; federal office appointment and promotion to distribution of federal resources policies; and from citizens protection and welfare (if any) to general governance of the country policies. The Buhari administration is also an arch ethnic hater, hate speech promoter and ethnic cleanser.

In the area of citizens’ liberties and rule of law, the Buhari administration has completely abandoned the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and brought  back through the back door the infamous Decree 2 of 1984 and its sister Decree 4 of 1984 with which enemy-citizens and others labeled corrupt, are arrested and detained for long periods frowned at and disallowed by the 1999 Constitution and the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights, which Nigeria signed, ratified and domesticated in 1983 and judicially cemented per Supreme Court in 2000. The Buhari administration is also gravely guilty of criminal stigmatization and bastardization of criminal justice and its procedures in Nigeria.

Under the above infamy, the Presidency of Gen Muhammadu Buhari has created and sustained an unwritten death code for Nigerian security forces, under which citizens of Nigeria exercising nonviolently and peacefully their natural rights to self determination, existence, identity and development are shot at sight and massacred particularly when they embark on nonviolent and constitutional assemblies. Under the code of infamy, not less than 200 members of the Igbo Ethnic Nationality exercising the natural rights above mentioned, which Nigeria willingly negotiated and entered into regionally and internationally; have been massacred since August 2015, with over 300 others inflicted with various degrees of deadly gunshot injuries. Over 700 members of the Shiite Muslim sect were also massacred in Zaria in December 2015 by Nigerian soldiers.

There also exists in the Buhari’s violent Presidency criminal pretrial detention policy, with which enemy-citizens and others labeled corrupt are hounded in detention periods far above constitutionally stipulated period. Through the re-introduction via back door of Decree 2 of 1984 and its sister Decree 4 of 1984, the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution such as Section 35 (right to personal liberty) and Sections 293, 294 and 296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 are brazenly corrupted and bastardized. The clear and unambiguous definition and categorization of crimes by Nigeria’s Criminal Code Act of 2004 and the Penal Code of 2004 has also been corrupted and bastardized by the Buhari administration.

The above Codes clearly categorized crimes in Nigeria into felonies, misdemeanors and simple offenses. While felonies such as treason, terrorism, murder, armed robbery, abduction, rape, arson, burglary and aggravated assault, etc, attract on conviction three years to life imprisonment or death; misdemeanors such as fraud, embezzlement of public funds, money laundering, assault, etc, attract on conviction one year to three years imprisonment. Simple offenses such as statutory and strict liability offenses (i.e. traffic and sanitary offenses) attract on conviction less than one year imprisonment.

Procedurally, Section 35 (4) of the 1999 Constitution clearly sets constitutional limits within which citizens can be legally held before being charged to court or tried. The Constitution even leniently gives the criminal investigators long periods of detention of their suspects accused of committing capital offenses (i.e. offenses carrying death penalty or life jail on conviction) such as terrorism, armed robbery, abduction, murder and treason by providing them with up to three months detention before charge or trial, to be strictly terminated after three months if such detained citizens are not granted and released on bail or tried in courts of competent jurisdictions. (Section 35[7a] deals with detention for a capital offence: In Nigeria, today, five offences are punishable by death. These include: murder, treason, treachery, directing and controlling or presiding at an unlawful trial by ordeal from which death results, and conviction for armed robbery.)

 Those detained over corruption or bureaucratic crimes charges, which are strictly misdemeanor in nature; are not supposed to be detained beyond 48 hours without charge. This is on account of the fact that no much mental interrogation and mental evidence sourcing is required. Pieces of evidence required to charge and prosecute bureaucratic or corruption accused citizens are paper or bureaucratic based. It is on account of the foregoing that Sections 293,294 and 296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 are provided; setting legal limits within which citizens can be detained without charge; situated in the minimum of 28 days and maximum of 42 days, strictly under a magistrate court remand. Section 296 specifically assumed that failure to bring detained citizens to trial after 28 days or 42 days of pretrial detention; unambiguously means that such detained citizens have no case to answer, which is why the same Section expressly directs for discharge and acquittal of such unlawfully detained citizens if their captors failed to charge them within the stipulated periods and that no such charges shall be brought against such citizens again in any court in Nigeria.

Sadly, these sacred and unambiguous constitutional and legal provisions have been observed in grave and gross breach by the dictatorial presidency of Gen Muhammadu Buhari. While the sacred provisions above mentioned see penalties for crimes in Nigeria as reformative, transformative and rehabilitative, the Buhari administration sees it as crude punishment and pursuit of vendetta and enmity. Dozens of Nigerians have been arrested and detained far beyond constitutionally stipulated periods over charges mostly bordering on crimes of misdemeanor (corruption), which on conviction, attract maximum of three years imprisonment. Such crimes are also easily and administratively bailable.

Shockingly, the Presidency of Gen Muhamadu Buhari has observed these in gross breach by obtaining kangaroo magistrate court detention orders from compromised magistrates, detaining the detained citizens as much as 90 days or more, contrary to the 1999 Constitution and its ACJ Act of 2015, Criminal Code Act of 2004 and Penal Code of 2004. Detained citizens with phantom accusation of treason and terrorism, etc, have also been held in detention for over six months since their arrest. Strong evidence abounds showing gross presidential interference in their bail applications and proceedings. Those of them granted bail by courts have never been released from detention and the Federal Government has kept on trampling on their fundamental human rights with reckless abandon till date.

Instances abound. Mr. Azibaola Roberts and his wife, Stella, were arrested by EFCC on 23^rd of March 2016. While his wife was granted administrative bail by the EFCC, Mr. Azibaola Roberts was detained for over 80days before being charged on 7^th of June 2016. They are accused of a $40million money laundering fraud and were given harsh bail conditions of N500million each, which are yet to be met till date. Col Nicholas Achinze is a former ADC to Col Sambo Dasuki. He was arrested by the Nigerian Army and the EFCC on 23^rd of December 2015 and detained for 13 weeks or 3 months and seven days without charge or under any specified criminal allegation. He spent five weeks in army custody from where he was transferred to the EFCC custody where he was further detained for eight weeks or two months without charge before he was released under duress by his captors in late March 2016. Barr Femi Fani-Kayode has been in criminal detention of the EFCC for 41 days or a month and eleven days over an allegation of monetary fraud. He was arrested on 9^th of May 2016. He is one of the leading critics of the Buhari administration.

Retired Col Sambo Dasuki has been in detention since 1^st of December 2015; a period of over seven months. He was arrested in connection with an allegation of $2.1 billion military equipment procurement scandal. Despite several court bails and orders for his release on bail and despite meeting the bail conditions, the Buhari administration has adamantly refused to obey or comply with such judicial pronouncements till date and he has remained in perpetual confinement. Citizen Nnamdi Kanu (POC) has been in unjust detention since 14^th of October 2015; a period of over eight months or over 240 days. Till date, his trial over phantom treasonable felony allegation is yet to be fully commenced and all the bails granted to him by courts have been disobeyed by the administration of Gen Muhammadu Buhari. The President, himself, has publicly vowed to “rot the duo of Sambo Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu in jail” at all costs, using brazen executive interference in their court processes and proceedings.

The worst and inexplicable of it all is continuing solitary and incommunicado detention of the leader of the Shiite Muslim sect in Nigeria; Malam Ibrahim Zaky el-Zaky since December 2015; a period of over seven months. Till date, Malam   Zaky el-Zaky is not facing any trial known to the 1999 Constitution and its criminal laws. Despite having body shattered and lacerated by soldiers in the violent entourage of COAS, Lt Gen Turkur Buratai, with live bullets during the last December massacre of over 700 of his followers, the Buhari administration has continued to detain him dead or alive, outside any known and written law in Nigeria and without any form of criminal charge.

Pieces of strong evidence also abound, showing and exposing the Buhari administration’s contempt to dissent voices, free speeches and political tolerance and pluralism. Selective arrest, detention and prosecution of citizens accused of committing the so called “corruption crimes”, is a clear case in point. While Nigeria’s mainstream CSOs and their leaders, dominant in Lagos State and the Southwest region of Nigeria, have been bottled or coerced by the Buhari administration into “pro-establishment activists”; those who are still courageous enough to challenge and speak against the excesses  of the administration, are threatened and marked out as enemy-citizens. In this category includes Deputy Senate President, Barr Ike Ekweremadu, Citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer, Barr Ifeanyi Ejiofor,  and Barr Nnamdi Nwokocha, who is in court, seeking to compel President Muhammadu Buhari and WAEC to clear controversies surrounding the former’s West African Senior Secondary School Certificate or WAEC.

Barr Ifeanyi Ejiofor, on his part, is facing persecution of the Buhari administration from right, left and center over his conscientious insistence not to compromise and betray the trust and confidence of his client; Citizen Nnamdi Kanu, which the Buhari administration is forcing him to do. Petitions from the Federal Government to his professional constituency and other quarters are flying from right, left and center. Apart from government sponsored hostile media onslaughts against Barr Nnamdi Nwokocha, over his suit against the existence or otherwise of President Muhammadu Buhari’s WAEC Certificate, he has also been presidentially threatened with a law suit, for “declaring Mr. President guilty on the pages of the newspaper”. Some activist lawyers of yesterday now bottled by the Buhari administration, have abandoned the masses and taken up professional briefs in defense of the President in his WAEC controversies.

The Deputy Senate President, on his part, is also not spared. While there are mountainous cases of uninvestigated and un-prosecuted individual and group homicides and other high profile regime atrocities in Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Force and the Office of the Attorney of the Federation are busy wasting public resources and energies on mere legislative rules and regulations (National Assembly rules), which are largely unknown to Nigeria’s criminal justice administration and the Constitution. Till date, most, if not all the culprits in the Nimbo and Agatu massacres are still on the prowl; likewise the perpetrators of the Zaria Shiites Massacre and the pro Biafran massacres of 2015 and 2016 in Onitsha, Aba and Asaba. Yet, the like of Deputy Senate President, who has strongly condemned the massacres, is being targeted for political humiliation and persecution, using the so called “Senate Rules Forgery”, which adds little or no value to the growth and advancement of Nigeria’s criminal justice administration.

It is therefore our position that the divine recovery from recent ill-health by President Muhammadu Buhari is a divine and possibly the last opportunity of the President to make amends and end his presidential violence and dictatorship in Nigeria. The President is hereby called upon to truly dedicate his speedy recovery to God and people of Nigeria and change from his administration’s violent and dictatorial approaches to democratic governance. It will be too dicey for President Muhammadu Buhari to continue in his old and crude governance way and he may most likely not have this type of opportunity again. One way to achieve these is for the Buhari administration to embark on holistic policy reversal and take a total recourse to citizen-governance and sovereignty as a responsibility. The sanctity of the pluralistic and secular composition of Nigeria must be respected and upheld at all times.

Signed:

For: Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs)

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Leader SBCHROs & Board Chair, Intersociety

Mobile Line: +2348174090052

Aloysius Attah, Chair, Anambra CLO & Head, Publicity, SBCHROs

Mobile Line: +2348035090548

Jerry Chukwuokoro, Head, Research & Strategy, SBCHROs

Mobile Line: +2348035372962

(Onitsha, Nigeria, 20^th of June 2016)

(Duke Ellington and his Orchestra play “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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