The Igbo Ekunie Initiative (IEI) has lodged a case against Nigeria’s government at International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity on members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The pressure group reported an acknowledgement has been received (ref: OTP-CR-61/16), marking the beginning of the probe.
“At the same time we urge the members of to resist the urge to bear arms in self defence in the face of the onslaught and provocation of the security services as they recently declared,” said Maazi Tochukwu Ezeoke President Igbo Ekunie Initiative.
He noted the government and agents such as army and police has continued to violate the rights of civilians through the alleged premeditated and unrelenting mass killing of unarmed civilians in Aba, Abia State.
Scores of unarmed IPOB members were said to have been murdered by members of the armed forces and police as they held prayers in a school premises recently.
Their bodies, civil society organizations reported, were dumped in a burrow pit in Aba- PH Road.
IPOB is among organizations demanding the independence of Biafra from Nigeria.
Ezeoke expressed IEI’s appreciation and gratitude to Angela Rayner, a member of British Parliament for her understanding of the plight of the protesters, and Pope Francis for his recent courageous speech condemning the clampdown and mass killing of Biafran protesters.
He said IEI, alongside the legal course already instituted in the ICC, would continue to pursue all other possible channels of redress against the perpetrators of human rights abuses in Nigeria.
“This is so as to sufficiently establish that those who thrive on impunity and so primitively choose to trample on the rights of others will have no hiding place,” said Ezeoke.
Government had not commented on the suit but President Muhamadu Buhari was recently quoted as saying Nigeria would not “tolerate” Biafra
– CAJ News
