OVERVIEW

 


 

By ALOY EJIMAKOR


The Rome Statute is the international treaty that founded the International Criminal Court. Comprising of 13 Parts, it establishes the governing framework for the Court. Adopted at the Rome Conference on 17th July 1998, it came into force on 1st July 2002, thereby creating the International Criminal Court.


The Statute sets out the Court's jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and – as of an amendment in 2010 – the crime of aggression.


Nigeria has ratified the Statute, thus making the Nigerian State and non-State actors subject to the jurisdiction of ICC. The Nigerian State means its President and his appointees, especially the heads of the security agencies, their commanders, officers and the other ranks under them. It also includes Governors and all personnels working under their authority, directly or indirectly.


Among other things, the International Criminal Court was created to end impunity for perpetrators of genocide or crimes against humanity and it’s easily implicated wherever the perpetrators are the same as the persons officially saddled with the responsibility of protecting their victims. An example will include where State actors are known to have issued orders that directly or indirectly led to extrajudicial killings or other inhumane treatment.


The Statute defines genocide, in pertinent part, as including the killings or causing serious bodily or mental harm to an ethnic or national group with the intent to destroy them in whole or in part. If other elements are met, genocide becomes easier to prove when the perpetrator is of a different ethnicity from his victims. Nigeria is a tinderbox because of its many ethnicities and the genocidal tendencies that have been driving some of its officials in the implementation of security operations when it comes to a particular ethnicity.


Crimes against humanity include the widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population through murder, extermination, torture, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law. Included also is persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, ethnic or religious grounds universally recognized as impermissible under international law.


This is where Nigerian State actors need to be very circumspect when dealing with proponents of self determination because self determination is a political opinion clearly recognized under international law.


No government official enjoys immunity from ICC prosecution for genocide or crimes against humanity and there is no statute of limitation. In plain terms, neither the Nigerian Constitution or its sovereignty, nor the passage of time will protect you. Just imagine how long it took to nab Charles Taylor.


Under the Statute, commanders and superiors are saddled with special criminal responsibilities. In particular, a military or police commander, de jure or de facto, is criminally responsible for crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction if committed by forces under his effective control or authority.


Within purview also are crimes caused by neglecting to exercise proper control over forces under him where the commander either knew or should have known that the forces were committing or soon to commit such crimes and the commander neglected to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his power to prevent them or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.


If the commander or superior officer is the one directly suborning the crime, such as in the case of Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević or Charles Taylor, the elements of the offense are met without more. Suborning the crime includes issuing direct orders to “shot to kill or shoot at sight”.


And for junior officers or other ranks, superior orders are not defenses to genocide or crimes against humanity. This means that when your superior officer orders you to “kill them all”, think twice before pulling that trigger.


The ICC Prosecutor shall initiate an investigation of alleged genocide or crimes against humanity upon receipt and evidentiary evaluation of information that provides a reasonable basis for the allegation.


On December 11, 2020, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has been investigating Nigeria for crimes that implicate the Rome Statute, made the following findings, amongst others:


‘Following a thorough process, I can announce today that the statutory criteria for opening an investigation into the situation in Nigeria have been met. Specifically, we have found a reasonable basis to believe that members of the Nigerian Security Forces have committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity and war crimes: murder, rape, torture and cruel treatment; enforced disappearance; outrages upon personal dignity; intentionally directing attacks against civilian population and against individual civilians; unlawful imprisonment; persecution on political grounds; and other inhumane acts’.


Anybody who has been observing Nigeria since late 2015 would easily discern that some of the evidence examined by the ICC Chief Prosecutor included the killings at Nkpor in Anambra State, the night vigil killings in Aba, Abia State, the Onitsha head bridge killings, the killings issuing from Python Dance at Afaraukwu, Abia State and in which IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu nearly lost his life and lately the August 2020 Enugu massacre and the killing of EndSARS protesters in October 2020 in Lagos.


It’s instructive that these killings occurred from the inception of the present administration and State actors were implicated from the lowest rungs to the very top. The evidence, including visuals, is legion and unassailable. So, your guess as to who might ultimately be charged before the ICC is as good as mine. For now, the jury is still out on their identities because the developing indictment is as yet under seal.


Meanwhile, after December 2020, there have been more killings, woundings, torture and rape, including particularly at Obigbo and other locations in Rivers State and the Southeast, and lately the killings that have occurred and still occurring in the wake of the current security operations in Eastern Nigeria, code-named Operation Restore Peace which - in its implementation - is beginning to look like a misnomer.


In the midst of all these, it will be naive and foolhardy for Nigerian State actors (Federal, State and local) to believe that the ICC is not keeping tabs and building a stronger case from the quantum credible evidence mined from the many petitions streaming in from various sources.


So, for what’s worth, this humble piece is an early warning to all Nigerian officials who are - directly or indirectly - involved in any extrajudicial killings or other inhumane treatments that appear to be the order of the day in this era.


Ejimakor, a lawyer writes from Alaigbo.

File Photo: Azumini Blue River


By Aloy Ejimakor

It’s often said that a lie told so many times, if unchallenged, may - in course of time - begin to pass for the truth. One of such is the terrible lie, institutionally purveyed since the end of the Civil War, to the effect that Igboland is landlocked or has no access to the sea. The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to debunk this lie with some simple historical and topographical evidence that are even in plain view, if you care to dig or do some physical explorations of your own.

Suffice it to say that it is a profound tragedy that entire generations of the immediate post-War Igbos never bordered to check but seemingly accepted this brazen institutional falsehood, largely intended to taunt the Igbo and put them down. A few that knew it to be false just didn’t care anymore. And that History was banned since the end of the Civil War made it worse, plus the fact that most people don’t take physical Geography that serious anymore, otherwise they would have known that Abia, Imo and Anambra States have varying short-distance paths to the Atlantic through Imo, Azumiri and Niger Rivers. It’s not really rocket science, as you can easily confirm this if you know how to read Google Earth; or conquer your fear of swamp snakes and walk through these areas on foot.

There are also many other hardly explored waterways and slithering tributaries, including the remote reaches of Oguta Lake and Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Imo State) that meandered through Igbo-delta wetlands to the Southeastern ends of the Atlantic waterfront. These rivers have varying lengths of short navigational paths to the Atlantic, and in some cases, are far shorter nautically (and even on footpath) than the Portharcourt, Calabar and Ibaka seaports are to their side of the Atlantic.

Many of these pathways, including particularly the ones from the outer reaches of Imo and Azumiri Rivers terminate at the Atlantic at no more than 15 to 30 Nautical miles to the beachhead. To put it in lay language, one nautical mile equals 1.8 kilometers. Thus, the contiguity of Southeast (not even the greater Igboland) to the Atlantic is less nautical miles than the Atlantic is to the seaports in Calabar, Onne, Ibaka, Lagos and Portharcourt. If you discount the territories excised from Igboland during State creations and the damnable boundary adjustments, it will be far less.

To be sure, Ikwerre land or Igweocha which bears the greater portions of the Portharcourt seaport was dredged up to 50 miles to the Atlantic front through the Bonny River. Onne seaport was dredged up to 60 miles to the Atlantic and Calabar seaport was dredged some 45 nautical miles to the Atlantic. Ibaka seaport is about 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic and the Lagos seaports dredged up to about 50 nautical miles to the Atlantic.

Compare all these to Obuaku in Abia State, which is only 25 nautical miles to the Atlantic from the confluence of Imo and Azumiri Rivers, of which Azumiri, on its own merits, lies not more than 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic beachfront. The less obvious one is the little-known Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Imo State) which is mere 18 nauticals to the Atlantic, all with its 65 feet of natural depth, unarguably comparable to no other River in Nigeria.

Additionally, what is geopolitically known as Igboland today is far smaller than what it was and legally supposed to be. As far back as 1856, Baikie - one of the earliest and credible Geographers of ancient Nigeria, had this to say - “Igbo homeland, extends east and west, from the Old Kalabar river to the banks of the Kwora, Niger River, and possesses also some territory at Aboh, an Igbo clan, to the west-ward of the latter stream. On the north it borders on Igara, Igala and A'kpoto, and it is separated from the sea only by petty tribes, all of which trace their origin to this great race" (Baikie, William Balfour, published with a sanction of Her Majesty's Government in 1856).

But with that infamous post-War abandoned property policy and the egregious institutional injustices in boundary adjustments and the widespread anti-Igbo gerrymandering, Igbos physically and psychologically lost hold of their vested ancestral lands, all to the point of not caring anymore about their historical contiguity to the Atlantic, which their ancestors beheld and called ‘Oshimiri’ (The Great Sea). The psychological beat-down and gang-up got so bad that some of the descendants of these Igbo ancestors (nearest to the Atlantic and now lying outside Southeast) are no longer sure whether they are Igbo or not.

The worst injustice was in 1976 when the Justice Nasir Boundary Adjustment Commission made a serious and targeted agenda of carving out core Igboland territories into some neighboring States of the South-South. But they didn’t quite make an absolute success of it. They missed the southernmost Southeast lands that possess Rivers that meandered through slices of Igbo-friendly South-South territories and ended up at the Atlantic, thus unwittingly placing Igboland and its right of access to the sea under the canons of customary international law.

As it stands, international law of the sea guarantees Igboland (whether it remains Nigerian territory or not) unhindered access to the nearest sea (in this case: the Atlantic) peacefully by the many short-distance rivers, waterways and tributaries that originated from Igboland but ultimately washed into the Atlantic through contiguous South-South territories. For avoidance of doubt, there’s particularly the Obuaku confluence in Ukwa West (Abia State) that flows through Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State before expanding out and washing into the near-reaches of the Atlantic. And the River Niger which ultimately joined the Atlantic through a vast network of hardly explored creeks and mangrove swamps that abut the Bight of Bonny in the South-South.

Nigeria is subject to the International Law of the Sea and is therefore bound to abide by its provisions, should the need arise in a scenario of persistent sovereign oppression of an identifiable indigenous group within Nigeria. The others are the United Nations Treaty of the Sea and the African Union Treaties and Conventions on the Sea, including particularly the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which Nigeria ratified and domesticated in 1983. The pertinent provisions are mostly embedded in the copious provisions relating to the collective economic and commercial rights of indigenous peoples lying within the Treaty nations. Ndigbo are undoubtedly an indigenous people presently lying within Nigeria. So, international law will surely come into play if a conflict arises out of Nigeria’s persistent institutional resistance to granting a seaport to Igboland.

Aloy Ejimakor is a Legal Practitioner


Source




By John Owen Nwachukwu


A coalition of Nigerian legal practitioners has dragged the People’s Republic of China to court over the effects of the Coronavirus outbreak on the West African giant.

The lawyers are demanding $200 billion as damages for the “loss of lives, economic strangulation, trauma, hardship, social disorientation, mental torture and disruption of the normal daily existence of people in Nigeria.”

This was contained in a statement on Sunday by the lead prosecutor, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN)

Azinge’s law firm, Azinge, and Azinge, is championing the legal action, stressing that they had concluded pleadings for the class action against the Chinese government.

The statement added, “The team of legal experts planned a two-phase line of action-: first is with the federal high court of Nigeria and secondly to persuade the government of Federal Republic of Nigeria to institute a state action against the People’s Republic of China at the International Court of Justice at the Hague

“The legal experts will be claiming damages to the tune of 200billion dollars, the Chinese Government will be served through its Embassy in Nigeria.”

Azinge is currently a member of the Commonwealth Arbitral Tribunal London, representing Nigeria and Africa.


Source
Governor Hope Uzodinma




by Jerrywright Ukwu



Imo governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has been rated below average by the people of the state as he marks 100 days in office. A survey conducted by the Centre for Digital Information and Communication Management Incorporated (CDCMI), noted that the governor is quite unpopular in the state and will need more than a 100 days to endear himself to the people.

CDCMI, a consortium of public relations, communication, management and public education professionals, led by renowned professor of information & communication technology, Professor Vincent Abara, conducted the survey across 15 local governments in Imo state.

Governor Uzodinma has now spent 3 months in office after he was declared winner by the Supreme Court. Source: Twitter

The survey was hinged on the following factors - acceptability, transparency, stakeholders engagement, due process, health infrastructure, local government administration, preparedness and general overview of governance.

The survey anchored its findings on several factors, among which are posing random questions embedded in the questionnaires.

According to the survey, 62% of the respondents are youths (aged 18-35) while adults and aged people shared the remaining 38%. On the count of acceptability, 78% of the respondents admitted that the government of Uzodimma is very unpopular. In the area of transparency, 59% agreed that the governance of the state shrouded in secrecy more than before.

On stakeholders engagement, 65% who shared their view believe that the governor has failed in this area. A whopping 90% of the respondents hold the opinion that the present government in Imo state has no regard for due process.

On health infrastructure, the Uzodimma administration scored an uninspiring 30%. About 70% of the respondents are of the opinion that the administration is still without any ideas on the issue.

About 52% of the respondents said that the local government administration has been moribund in recent times. 82% of the respondents scored Uzodimma low on preparedness for governance.

The respondents are of the opinion the governor did not have a clear-cut plan for governance.

About 20% are of the opinion that the Hope Uzodimma administration does not hold any promise for Imo state, and as such, they are indifferent to his government.

The remaining 12% yielded faith in the administration, saying that Hope Uzodimma might spring up surprises and turn out better than anticipated.

Recall that Governor Uzodinma was on Sunday, March 8, attacked by youths in the Ohaji Egbema area of the state.

Upon sighting the official SUV jeep of Uzodinma, some youths in the area started throwing stones at the vehicle.


Source
Nnamdi Kanu




Dumebi Emmanuel 

December 6, 2019


The leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has described Senator Orji Uzor Kalu’s ill-advised conviction over alleged fraud and money laundering as politically motivated.

Kanu in a statement on Thursday said he warned Sen. Kalu that the northerners do not love the Igbos. He said this is because of the pathological hatred Alimajiris have towards Biafrans (Igbos especially) because their industry and ingenuity expose their mediocrity.

He, however, described Kalu as one who is committed to one Nigeria.

The statement reads,

“I warned him when he came to see me in Kuje Prison that those illiterate unity begging Alimajiris from the desert don’t love him but he wouldn’t listen.”

“I warned him that Fulani caliphate will not rest until they conquer, subdue and enslave the entire East and West because of their sense of inferiority complex, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“I warned him of the pathological hatred these Alimajiris have towards Biafrans (Igbos especially) because our industry and ingenuity expose their mediocrity, but he wasn’t having it. He was a committed One Nigeria apologist.”

“I reminded him of what happened to Ken Saro Wiwa who like him believed so much in One Nigeria and ended up being killed by the same Alimajiri he served so diligently against Biafra, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Today they are picking them off one after the other because they know IPOB won’t fight for any Efulefu. If he had known what was to become of him, he would have done exactly what I told him during our meeting, join the nearest IPOB family and support the Biafra restoration project. Isn’t it ironic the only thing that will save Orji Uzor Kalu now is the coming of Biafra. Will Dave Umahi, Okezie Ikpeazu, Willie Obiano, Rochas Okorocha learn from this?”


Source



The Indigenous People of Biafra ,IPOB, announced the submission of documented evidence to Agnes Callamard, the United Nations Rapporteur for Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, chronicling gross human rights violations perpetrated against Biafrans in Nigeria. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader, confirmed the submission of the documents and stated that his aim of submitting the documents was to ensure that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are prosecuted and that religious minorities across Nigeria are duly protected by the international community. Some of his statements reads in parts:

"Today, the Biafran people submitted materials chronicling #humanrights abuses perpetrated against #Biafrans in #Nigeria to @AgnesCallamard, Special Rapporteur at the @UN. The full report can be viewed here: https://t.co/nL0FAQWA7g

"The full report can be viewed here"

He continued "Our goal is to ensure that the human rights violations occurring across #Nigeria will be acknowledged and confronted, perpetrators will be prosecuted, and religious minorities across Nigeria will be protected by the international community.

The materials submitted today to @AgnesCallamard @UN were signed by me, as the leader of #IPOB, as well as IPOB U.S. National Coordinator Dr. Clement Okoro, and 22 state coordinators from across the U.S.

The submission to the @UN documents 12 incidents in which #Biafrans were subject to severe human rights abuses, ranging from indiscriminate arrests to mass executions, carried out by #Nigerian military, police and security forces.

Most notable amongst these atrocities is the killing by #Nigerian military forces 150 #Biafrans in May '16. These innocent civilians were celebrating Biafran Remembrance Day & commemorating the approximately 2M Biafrans that lost their lives during the Nigerian Civil War.

The number of human rights abuses being committed against minorities and those with dissenting views in #Nigeria, including members of the #IPOB, over the past five years have increased dramatically both in scale and heinousness

The materials call to @AgnesCallamard & @UN's attention to the massacre of Christians by #Fulani extremists – a group that the 2019 Global Terrorism Index estimates is deadlier than #BokoHaram. This was highlighted in a recent op-ed by @BHL in @WSJ:"  he stated, parts of the document which was signed by over 20 states coordinators in united stated reads below;


March 19, 2020

Agnes Callamard

United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Human Rights Council

Dear Special Rapporteur Callamard:

I. INTRODUCTION

Thank you for the opportunity to submit additional factual materials for your consideration for inclusion in the official final report of your mission to Nigeria from August 19 to September 3, 2019 in your capacity as UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. As you mention in your September 2 End of Visit Statement, the situation in Nigeria is volatile and violent, and “is a tragedy for the people of Nigeria.”

As concerned citizens and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), we write to thank you for your attention to this crisis, provide supporting evidence to the observations you include in your preliminary report, and encourage you to continue to highlight the bloodshed and injustices taking place in Nigeria so that the international community will finally understand the urgency and importance of joining together to hold the Nigerian national government accountable and end these atrocities.

II. VIOLATIONS OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS & THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

As you have seen for yourself, the number of human rights abuses being committed against minorities and those with dissenting views in Nigeria, including members of the IPOB, over the past five years have increased dramatically both in scale and heinousness. These crimes, committed by state and non-state actors alike, are at best ignored by the Buhari regime and at worst sanctioned by the administration. Instances of mass murders and other horrific acts of violence are rarely investigated and perpetrators are not prosecuted. Even where violence has been demonstrated to have been led by state security actors, no mechanism exists to hold those responsible accountable.

Most concerning to us in particular as Biafrans is the massacre of Christians by Fulani extremists – a group that the 2019 Global Terrorism Index estimates is deadlier than Boko Haram, that has gone largely unacknowledged by the West. While atrocities are being committed regularly based on long simmering ethnic tensions and disputes over resources, the international community must not ignore this aspect of the conflict, which some have suggested is reminiscent of Rwanda in the 1990s, and Darfur and South Sudan in the 2000s.

As some findings in your September 2 End of Visit Statement suggest, members of IPOB living in Nigeria continue to face violence and persecution each day. As such, included in this submission please find a video compilation containing recorded footage as well as a written explanation that details some of the most heinous and serious incidents affecting IPOB members in recent years. 1 All of these instances constitute gross violations of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 6, 14 and 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including but not limited to the inherent right to life, liberty and security of person regardless of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs; 2 the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law;3 and the right to equal protection of the law.4

1. On February 9, 2016, the Nigerian military surrounded a peaceful gathering of IPOB members and supporters at Aba National High School and fired live ammunition at them without any prior warning. According to eyewitnesses and local human rights activists, 9 people well killed and many of the protesters at Aba were rounded up and taken away by the military. Four days later 13 corpses, including those of men known to have been taken by the military, were discovered in a pit near the Aba highway.

2. On May 30, 2016 in Onitsha, Anambra State, dozens of Biafrans were killed by Nigerian security forces while peacefully celebrating Biafra Remembrance Day. Estimates range from at least 60 fatalities but have been cited as high as 150 in what Amnesty International labeled a “chilling crackdown.” Evidence gathered from eyewitnesses, morgues and hospitals confirmed that between May 29-30, 2016, the Nigerian military opened fire on members of the IPOB, supporters, and bystanders at three locations in the town.

Mass extrajudicial executions by security forces are not isolated to this incident. An Amnesty International investigation concluded that video, photos and eyewitness accounts consistently showed that the military fired live ammunition at IPOB gatherings between 2015 and 2016 with little or no warning to disperse crowds.

3. On January 20, 2017, 65 IPOB members were arrested and one killed at a pro-Biafra rally to commemorate the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Tear gas was used to disperse the crowds of peaceful participants.

4. At least four Biafrans were killed when Nigerian forces opened fire on pro-Biafra supporters congregating at IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu’s residence in Umuahia, Abia State on September 14, 2017.

5. On May 30, 2018, members of the IPOB were asked to observe a sit-at-home order in recognition of the anniversary of the declaration of independence by Biafra in 1967 and a day dedicated to Biafran heroes. The sit-at-home was successful in many parts of the South East, but Nigerian soldiers shot and killed Kelvin Nnamdi Ikemeh while observing the sit-at-home. His body was taken away by soldiers. Another member of IPOB was allegedly shot and killed by security forces while attempting to set up a barricade in Nnewi, Anambra State.

6. In August 2018, the IPOB called for an international inquiry to investigate the execution of 38 pro-Biafra activists by the Federal Government after the discovery of 38 bodies of slain Biafrans at Obiawom village, Ogwe Autonomous Community, in Asa, Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State. The killings are believed to be the outcome of Operation Python Dance, which was carried out by the Nigerian Army in the South East zone.

7. On August 17, 2018, 112 women were arrested and prosecuted in Owerri, Imo State, for protesting the disappearance of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu. They were discharged and released by a court six days later.

8. On May 22, 2019, 140 IPOB members were arrested during a peaceful burial procession and charged with treason. The Enugu state police command confirmed the arrests within the Nsukka area of the state, stating the individuals were arrested for allegedly “organizing unlawful procession and display of proscribed items on the streets.”

9. On October 15, 2019, a petroleum tanker exploded in a central commerce area in Onitsha, Anambra State, killing at least two people and destroying many businesses. Government-run fire services refused to respond to the incident.

10. At least two IPOB members were killed when the home of IPOB lead counsel, Barrister Ejiofor, was attacked in Anambra State on December 4, 2019.

11. On December 8, 2019, IPOB member Chibuike Ojoko was killed and decapitated by Fulani herdsmen after they invaded the Ndunwafu Village by surprise.

12. On December 12, 2019, Nigerian forces killed an IPOB member in Abuja at a police checkpoint.

13. In addition to the atrocities perpetrated against members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, instability in the country has resulted in the death of at least 589 Nigerians this year. An appendix is attached at the end of this letter, which documents the location, date, and number of people killed in Nigeria thus far in 2020.

These instances represent only a small fraction of the arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial executions perpetrated against Biafrans over the past several years. The actual number of deaths is alarmingly high and information regarding these and other cases is being suppressed by the Nigerian government.

III. CONCLUSION

At the height of the war in 1969, 12,000 people a day starved to death in Biafra at the hands of the Nigerian government. More than 50 years later, the violent persecution of Biafrans and other minority groups by the Nigerian state continues unabated. The UN has identified the IPOB as one group that is specifically targeted, repressed and arbitrarily killed by state actors, and the respective conflictsin the Middle Belt and Southern States – where IPOB members reside – constitute a major security challenge. In 2018, this conflict was six times deadlier than the Boko Haram insurgency and has displaced over 300,000 people. We fear without intervention, history may repeat itself.

The Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, adopted by the Economic and Social Council in its resolution 1989/65 of 24 May 1989, establishes the obligation of Governments “to guarantee effective protection through judicial or other means to individuals and groups who are in danger of extra-legal, arbitrary or summary executions,” and requires that they “make every effort to prevent extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions,” 5 and implement “thorough, prompt and impartial investigation of all suspected cases of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions, including cases where complaints by relatives or other reliable reports suggest unnatural death in the above circumstances.” Nigeria has failed to meet its obligations.

Once again, we thank you for your attention to this humanitarian crisis. We are hopeful that the additional factual information, videos and eyewitness accounts provided in this submission will help tell the full story of what is taking place on the ground, and look forward to the publication and presentation of your final report.  The time has come for the Nigerian government to face pressure by the international community to adhere it its human rights obligations and constitutional commitments to its citizens.

Respectfully,

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
Leader Indigenous People of Biafra


Dr. Clement Okoro
United States National Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Oriaku Nkem Akpa
Arizona Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Sylvester Njoku
Alabama Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Ndubuisi Chijioke
California Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Onyema Onozie
Florida Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Uche Nwokenkwo
Georgia Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Samsom Ememandu
Illinois Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Afam Olisa
Indiana Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Uchenna Osoro
Kentucky Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Chimamkpa Ononiwu
Maryland Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Tochuwku Ikwuanusi
Massachusetts Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Ndidi Awurum
Michigan Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Christopher Onuwa
Missouri Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra


Pastor Titus Jideofor
Minnesota Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Hygenius Offor
New Mexico Coordinator
ndigenous People of Biafra

Mazi David Ezekwesili
New York Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Ugochukwu Okafor
North Carolina State Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Uju Okwumabua
Ohio Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Blessing Njeje
Oklahoma Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Chika Amukamara
Oregon Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Father Benjamin Nwanonenyi
Pennsylvania Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Ndubueze Ejiasi
Texas Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Paul Ezieme
Virginia Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

High Chief Lucky Ogbuefi
Washington DC Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra

Mazi Eddie Nnadi
Washington State Coordinator
Indigenous People of Biafra










IV. APPENDIX In addition to the atrocities perpetrated against members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, instability in the country has resulted in the death of at least 589 Nigerians this year. Included below please find documentation of the location, date, and number of people killed in Nigeria thus far in 2020, as of March 10.