A petition calling for the arrest and prosecution of former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai has been filed at the Internation Criminal Court (ICC) by the Concerned Nigerians Group.
Tukur Buratai was alleged to have violated the human rights of citizens among other crimes against humanity during his tenure of office. Recall that the past Chief of Army Staff together with other service chiefs resigned from office on Tuesday, January 26.
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Deji Adeyanju, the Chairman of the Concerned Group petitioned the ICC to arrest, investigate and prosecute the past Chief of Staff to serve as a warning to others who will ”indiscriminately abuse the rights of Nigerians.”
The letter addressed to Fatou Bensouda, the court’s Chief Prosecutor reads
“We write to call on the International Criminal Court and all lovers of democracy and human rights in the world to immediately investigate, arrest and prosecute Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) who was just relieved of his duty as Chief of Army Staff for crimes against humanity and the Nigerian people.
It will be recalled that sometimes in 2015, Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) ordered members of the Nigerian army to kill over 300 defenseless Nigerian Shiite Muslims on the unjustifiable grounds that they ‘touched a general’s chest’. That event has been appropriately tagged the Zaira massacre and it has further worsened the insecurity situation in Nigeria. Shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Buratai (Rtd) ordered the Nigerian soldiers to kill hundreds of Nigerian citizens of South Eastern extraction, in the guise of searching for members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
It is particularly noteworthy to mention that as at the time Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) ordered the massacre of IPOB members, the group had not been proscribed by the Nigeria Government. Additionally, we have been able to gather from different independent sources that Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) personally ordered the killing of the innocent protesters at Lekki toll gate, Lagos, on October 20, 2020.
It is on the basis of the foregoing, among other human rights abuses, that we call on the International Criminal Court and friends of Nigeria to urgently investigate, arrest and prosecute Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd), to serve as a deterrent to members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and their civilian collaborators who have made it a point of duty to indiscriminately abuse citizens’ human rights.”
Source; Ghgossip.com
