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| Exposed! Nigerian Army officer spotted in Nnewi posing as a SHOE SHINER [ALERT!) |
The conspiratorial roles of Nigerian security forces in the current regime atrocities and other human rights abuses have been exposed by a human right organisation. Many Nigerian military officers of Hausa-Fulani ethnic group have recently been spotted in South Eastern states of Anambra, Imo, Enugu etc pretending to be shoe shiners and other artisans.
According to InterSociety's report, pieces of credible evidence exposing the conspiratorial roles of security forces in the country’s non-State actor butcheries across its rain forests region are mounting on daily basis; likewise those directly linking the Muhammadu Buhari’s government and its security chiefs to incessancy of state terrorism and murders in the Southern part of Nigeria.
There are continuing reports of sponsored security personnel particularly members of the armed forces posing as “alamajari” shoe makers or shoe shiners, “Mai-ruwa” (water fetchers), beggars, finger nail cutters, and barrow pushers flooding the streets of southern cities particularly those of the Southeast and the South-south regions for the purpose of embarking on well coordinated intelligence gathering missions for Hausa-Fulani oligarchs. From Nnewi to Onitsha; Awka to Ekwulobia; Abakiliki to Enugu; Umuahia to Aba; Owerri to Port Harcourt; the number of cities under siege by those marauding elements is many to be named.
In Nnewi, Anambra State, for instance, a doctor of a teaching hospital recently ran into an officer he knew way back in the north, called Sani, whom he saw posing as a shoe shiner along a road in Nnewi. On shouting his name twice, the officer-soldier saw and recognized him; took to his heel and abandoned his shoe shining basket. In Owerri, Imo State, there was also a case of another soldier posing as shoe maker, whose identity card dropped from his pocket and a person nearby picked it and discovered that he is a serving soldier of the northern extraction. At Ekwulobia, Anambra State, there was a heated argument between a supposedly shoe maker of northern extraction and his customer; leading to a near-fist cuff and along the line, an identity card of the supposed shoe maker dropped from his pocket and he turned out to be a soldier of the northern extraction. Other instances abound.
Just recently, 76 unarmed and innocent natives of Ugwuneshi Autonomous Community in Awgu LGA of Enugu State were arrested and tortured by soldiers of the 144 Battalion in Abia State; detained and influenced a feeble magistrate to remand them in prison for fifteen days for protesting against the menace of the Fulani herders and their armed Janjaweed in their area. As if that was not enough, the DSS recently arranged a press conference where it accused IPOB of “killing five Hausa-Fulani civilians”. The accusation turned out to be watery, vexatious and grossly unsubstantiated. In the Agatu and Ukpabi-Nimbo (Uzo Uwani) butcheries by the Fulani Janjaweed, in which over 300-400 defenseless citizens mostly women and children were killed; the DSS has not said anything or arrested anybody till date. Just recently, the Commissioner of Police Anambra State, CP Hosea Karma publicly claimed that “IPOB and MAASOB activities”, were his major security headache. How nonviolent protests guaranteed in democratic society and the Constitution have become violent crimes warranting the CP’s security headache, has not been publicly explained by the CP till date.
As recently as Saturday, 30th of April 2016, the Governor of Enugu State, Hon Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi made a shocking revelation of how relevant security chiefs in the State including the CP and the GOC of 82 Division of the Nigerian Army were duly informed over eight hours before the Ukpabi-Nimbo Fulani killings, yet they could not do anything. The State CP, Ekechukwu Nwodibo, obviously acting on a script from the above, had after the butchery claimed that “hoodlums not Fulani herders (Janjaweed) carried out the killings”. The Governor, on his part, also exhibited moral remorselessness and culpability. The same Governor that was caught in the media shedding tears during his visit to the butchery scene with a declaration of two days of mourning; was sighted in Aso Rock smiling and laughing as if he won a Nobel Prize for Peace in Norway. He also nearly turned himself into a snail while having a handshake with Gen Muhammadu Buhari; as if he was greeting and shaking “Saint Pope John Paul 11”. These are clear manifestations of conquest and modern day political slavery; responsible for ceaseless ethnic cleansing directed at Igbo population in Nigeria.
Further attestation to the conspiratorial roles under reference, is the hostile and war drumming position taken by the 19 Northern Governors Forum. The Forum not only defended and justified strongly the butcheries perpetrated by the Fulani Janjaweedparticularly that of Ukpabi-Nimbo, but also described the butchers as “cattle rustlers”; yet they did not tell Nigerians why those seeking to steal cows (rustlers) from cow herders, would abandon cow herders and their cows and go after the lives of those not involved in cattle herding (Agatu and Ukpabi-Nimbo natives of Benue and Enugu States). The Northern Governors and the Buhari Presidency are also believed to be the brains behind the pendency of the National Grazing Reserve Bill before the National Assembly with its genocidal provisions. Totality of these explains our position that “the security forces in Nigeria are conspiratorially on rampage while the (former) mainstream activist-CSOs are on the run over the raging ethnic bloodshed, rights abuses and other regime atrocities in the country. Till date, the perpetrators are still on the prowl and not one of them has been arrested and prosecuted.
We are aware that the Oyo State Government has made it clear to Federal Government that “it does not have any land to give for National Grazing Reserve”; likewise the Government of Enugu State. That of Oyo State is commendable; not minding its affiliation with APC controlled Federal Government. The position of Ekiti State, too, is commendable. Condemned unreservedly is the silence of the graveyard maintained, till date, by the Governments of Anambra and Ebonyi States. The conspiratorial and parasitic position taken by the Government of Imo State is not unexpected; yet it does not represent the majority views of the Imo People. That of Abia State should be explicit and frontal. All the States of the rain forests region must rise with one voice and ensure prohibition of the Fulani Animal Husbandry in all parts of Nigeria except in the core north.
Call For International Criminal & Diplomatic Interventions: Time has also come for urgent international intervention by the International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and other members of the international community. Specifically, the UN Security Council is called upon to carry out extensive criminal and diplomatic investigations into the activities of the Fulani Janjaweed and associated roles of the cattle owners and herders as well as conspiratorial roles of the country’s security forces and the Government of Gen Muhammadu Buhari, which, till date, have not arrested and prosecuted any perpetrator associated with the butcheries under reference. By this, the Buhari administration has not only failed to fulfill its international obligations, but also circumstantially an accomplice. The administration has further breached its obligation under the Rome Statute of the ICC by its “unwillingness and inability” to bring to justice those murderous elements within the Fulani Janajweed.
We hereby demand that the investigations under recommendation should follow the patterns applied in the Sudan’s Darfur Region by the international community and the UN Security Council (UNSC). Such international criminal and diplomatic investigations should be referred by UNSC, under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter to the Office of the Prosecutor for International Criminal Court for further investigation, indictment and prosecution of actors, sponsors, aiders and abettors. Alternatively, any State-Party to ICC Statute that feels deeply concerned over unprovoked butcheries in Nigeria is also called upon to refer the butcheries to the ICC for necessary remedial and punitive actions.
Read Full InterSociety Report
Read Full InterSociety Report
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