The Nigerian Army’s anonymous denial of its involvement with its immediate past Chief of Staff (COAS), Retired Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai ...
The Nigerian Army’s anonymous denial of its involvement with
its immediate past Chief of Staff (COAS), Retired Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai in
the secret and most horrendous execution of six Igbo Christian soldiers inside
the Abacha Barracks in Abuja on Monday, 25th Jan 2021; is a clear case of
‘purposive admission of criminal responsibility’. If it is in criminal court
trial, it becomes ‘mens rea proven’. We are boldly glad and happy that Barr
E.R. Okoroafor, a member of the Coalition and originator of the information had
in his phone interview with the Abuja Correspondent of the Int’l Center for
Investigative Reporting (ICIR) yesterday’s evening (2th Feb 2021) insisted that
the six Igbo Christian soldiers were secretly tried and executed and challenged
the Army to not only produce them alive, hale and hearty, but also tell
Nigerians and the world what actually happened including where the Army kept
them and why they were kept as well as whether they were tried in secret and
condemned for secret execution.
The Coalition makes bold to say that uploading montage
pictures of the slain soldiers with “Fake News” written over same or hiring a
consultancy firm to write a statement signed by “an anonymous senior Army
officer” is in no way a credible and concrete reply and ordinarily should not
be taken serious; but owing to psychological terrorization and chronic
censorship which media practitioners in the country have undergone and are
still undergoing, any crab from the Army or Government is now capable of making
big headlines. That is to say that the Nigerian Army has not issued any
concrete and provable denial statement as far as the Coalition is concerned. As
a matter of fact, the Nigerian Army has ended up indirectly admitting criminal
responsibility in the matter. The Coalition also did not issue that aspect of
the statement for Nigerian Army to accept or deny because falsehood, lying,
cover-ups and evidence destruction have been its routine and modus since 2015.
Even after massacring hundreds of defenseless Easterners in
2015 and 2016, the same Nigerian Army set up a kangaroo panel in 2017 and in
the end claimed that “no single citizen was killed in the East”. Same Nigerian
Army has kept mute over its abduction of over 400 Obigbo residents in Rivers
State. This is despite concretely evidential court processes and decisions
including the release of 145 of the abductees, secretly and inhumanly thrown
into solitary captivity for more than three months or since 21st Oct and early
Nov 2020. Till today, the Nigerian Army has refused to speak or release the
remaining abductees unconditionally or remorsefully apologize to the victims
and Nigerians and hold the perpetrators tightly accountable. On the other hand,
the Army is hereby mockingly ‘commended’ for not declaring the names of the
slain soldiers as “fake names”, “not
belonging to Nigerian Army”; or declaring their pictures as having “originated
from Congo DRC or Central African Republic or Burundi”.
Defining Secret Trial Or Court Martial
Contrary to Nigerian Army’s gross ignorant with regard to
‘secret trial or court martial’, this is when like in military setting, service
personnel are accused with malicious or premeditated and hateful intents and
arraigned in a trial with a predetermined outcome; during which all ingredients
of fair hearing and trial are set aside or stifled-and these include: denying the accused access to defense lawyers
of their choice, denying them access to their family members and physicians,
conducting their trials outside official publicity and public knowledge,
blocking or denying them right of appeal to Civil Courts (Court of Appeal and
Supreme Court) and carrying out secret execution of the court-martial convicts
outside the law including without recourse to Nigeria’s existing National
Moratorium on Death Penalty.
13 Key Questions Nigerian Army Failed To Answer
The Nigerian Army has not provided concrete answers to the
following: (1) whether the six slain Igbo Christian soldiers and their names,
religion and ethnicity exist in the Army or on its records, (2) whether the
four pictures as produced belong to the ascribed serving personnel of the
Nigerian Army, (3) whether they were made to undergo any form of trial within
the Army, (4) whether they were tried in any manner with the stated
allegations, (5) whether their trial, if true, was conducted in the presence of
their family, legal and medical representatives including allowing them access
to lawyers of their choice, (6) whether the six Igbo soldiers were defended by
lawyers of their choice, (7) whether they were allowed to exercise their right
of appeal to Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and (8) whether the Nigerian
Army issued any public statement concerning their trial or notified their
beloved ones and the public.
The rest are: (9) if they were executed, whether it was done
secretly or in the open and if in the open, whether their lawyers, physicians,
faith priests and family members were present-these, if true, should have been
attached with audio-visual evidence showing same, (10) where the Nigerian Army
and its immediate past COAS, Retired Lt Gen Tukur Buratai derived powers to
order the execution, whether in secret or in the open, of soldiers including
the six slain Igbo Christian soldiers (unjustly and wickedly convicted),
convicted by Army Court Martial, (11) if they are still alive and detained as
‘death row inmates’, where they are
being held, condition of their health and circumstances leading to their present
fate, (12) why the Nigerian Army failed
to produce them publicly, if they are still alive, hale and hearty and (13) why
Nigerian Army, in furtherance of the above, did not update Nigerians as per
whether it has also secretly executed or still keeping alive another Igbo
soldier convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad in Maiduguri, Borno
State in Jan 2021, by name: Trooper Azunna Mmadubuchi.
Signatories:
· Emeka
Umeagbalasi (M.Sc.), Board Chair, Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & Rule
of Law
· Prof Anthony
Ejiofor-Chairman, World Igbo Congress (USA)
· Prof
Uzodimma Nwala-President, Ala-Igbo Dev Foundation (ADF)
· Prof Justice
Chidi-President, Concerned Elites for Better Society Initiative
· Prof Justin
Akujieze-Board Chairman, Ekwenche Research Institute (USA)
· Dr. Moses
Nwaigwe-President, Biafra Genocide Survivors Group (USA)
· Austin
Okeke, Esq.-Global Leader, Igbo Board of Deputies (UK)
· Kanayo K.
Odeluga, MD., MPH-Executive Director, Igbo League, Inc.(USA)
· Mercy Alu,
MBA, PhD-Executive Coordinator (Research), the Int’l Association of African
Authors & Scholars (USA)
· Dr.
Onyenkachi Orjiako, Esq.-Rep, Int’l
Society for War Against Lawlessness (USA)
· Mazi Obi Okoli-Coordinator, Congress of Igbo
Leaders UK & Ireland
· Dr. Law
Mefor-Rep, Igbo Bu Igbo (IBI)
· Dr. Okezie
Kelechi-ED, Neighborhood Environment Watch Foundation
· Dr. Jerry
Chidozie Chukwuokoro-Rep, Int’l Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights
Initiative
· Comrades
Chilos Godsent & Zulu Ofoelue-Reps, Igbo National Council
· Ezekwike
Chekwube Violet, Esq.-Founder, New Home Mentoring & Dev Initiative
· Comrade
Aloysius Attah-Chair, Civil Liberties Organization, Southeast
· Maazi
Tochukwu Ezeoke, President, Igbo Ekunie Initiative
· Comrade
Justine Ijeomah-ED, Human Rights Social Dev & Environmental
Foundation(HURSDEF)
· Comrade
Vincent Ezekwueme-Chair, Civil Liberties Organization, Anambra State
· Comrade
Peter Onyegiri-ED, Center for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy
· Comrade Alex
Olisa-Rep, Southeast Good Governance Forum
· Comrade Nnana
Nelson Nwafor-ED, Foundation for Environment Rights Advocacy & Dev.
· Comrade
Nkwocha Anozie-ED, Initiative for Ideal Dev & Emancipatory Leadership
· Comrade
Emeku Uche-Rep, Easy-life Initiative for Rural Youths
· Comrade Samuel
Njoku-Chair, Human Rights Organization of Nigeria
· Comrade
Ngwobia O. Ngwobia-Rep Primate Salvation Initiative
· Nze UgoAkpe
Onwuka (Oyi)-National Coordinator, Igbo Renaissance Forum
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