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| Army’s radicalization and bastardization of security and people of southeast Nigeria: before it is too late! |
-----Intersociety & SBCHROs
(Intersociety
& SBCHROs: 9th September 2017)-The announcement by the
lopsidedly composed Nigerian Army of commencement of the so called “Operation
Python Dance 11” in the Southeast part of Nigeria; starting from 15th
September to 14th October 2017 is nothing short of radicalization and bastardization of civil
security in the Southeast or Igbo heartland of Nigeria as well as
deliberate traumatizing of the law abiding and peaceful People of the Zone .
It is also a clear case of
declaration of unprovoked and unwarranted war on the Igbo Population right
inside their ancestral citadel. This act of mindless militarization and
militarism in a supposedly democratic dispensation has a lot of intractable
consequences.
When a peaceful people are
pushed too far or to the wall and subjugated to the extreme; over issues concerning their
rights of existence and ethnic identities, the response in many, if not most
cases, result to far reaching consequences and complications; if not in short
run, then in long run. We have warned on these before (i.e. in our memo to
present Federal Government, dated 16th of February 2016) and we are
warning on same again!
The world history is full of
several instances where the same radicalization
and bastardization of civil security and ethno-religious sentiments and
disquiets of sub national entities dangerously escalated and transformed;
pushing the referenced sub-nationals to reprisal radicalization by way of
insurgency or street crimes’ warlord-ship and turning such sub-national
entities and the entire national entity into socio-political toxemia or failed
and balkanized State.
Those who are the repositories
of State coercion or force of arms have always been warned by modern theorists
of violence not to make a suicidal mistake of seeing themselves as “sole holders
of monopoly of violence” and always see and treat violence and its controllers
as “double-edged swords”. This is more when there are hundreds, if not
thousands of forms of modern violence; with insurgency and its intractability
as one of them.
Instances of these can be found
in the recent histories of Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Ivory Coast, former
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Sudan and as most recently as Syria where over 450,000
people have been killed since 2011; with over 5million refugees and 6.6million
internally displaced persons generated as at this 2017; to mention but a few. Effective and pluralistic handling of same in
recent times had also led to peaceful fortification or breaking of the
foundations of agitating and disillusioned splinter and national entities.
Instances are the United Germany and the velvet
revolution of 31st December 1989 in former Czechoslovakia (now Czech and
Slovakia Republics).
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| Army’s radicalization and bastardization of security and people of southeast Nigeria: before it is too late! |
A typical local example of
mishandling and radicalization of internal security was the extra judicial or
custodial killing of then 39yrs old leader of the Boko Haram insurgency group, Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf,
killed by
the Federal Government of Nigeria on 30th July 2009. Another aspect
of the radicalization was the politicization of the insurgency by the
fundamentalist political elements of the northern political class.
That is to say that the
decision of the present Buhari Administration at no tangible national or
regional security provocation to flood the Igbo heartland with battalions of
soldiers and armaments; dominated and manned by commanding and foot soldiers of
Mr. President ethnic group and religion is a clear case of declaration of
ethno-religious “fatwa” on the Igbo Race. It is a further case of unwarranted
and abominable punishment of the People of the Zone for being the most
nonviolent sub-nationality and a core bread winner of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
We are therefore shocked and
alarmed as before over the infantile and sinister reasons given by the
lopsidedly composed Nigerian Army for its latest declaration of war on this most
peaceful sub-nationality. We make bold
say again that the present Nigerian Army has since June 2015 been divisively
peopled or foot-soldiered, commanded and controlled by Mr. President and people
of his own ethnicity and religion; in gross contravention of Section 14 (3) of
Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution; which unambiguously provides for geopolitical
spread and balance.
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| US Lawyers in another group photograph with attendants of the joint meeting of the elders’ forum/traditional rulers/Igbo intelligentsia/Igbo civil society/human rights organizations held in Enugu on 21st August 2017; and 3 showing the US Lawyers seated with Aloysius Attah (Chair CLO, Southeast), Okpala EzeNri, Prince Emeka Onyeso (Boss of Forum for the Promotion of National Ethics & Values) and Emeka Umeagbalasi (Boss of Intersociety Nigeria). |
Having critically and expertly
studied the reasons given for the latest militarization and its fatwa operation
in the Southeast, we found them gravely and grossly inexcusable, undemocratic,
unconstitutional and incoherent with the constitutionalized and globalized
roles of the military under democratic dispensation.
Globally and nationally,
especially in Nigeria, the roles of the
armed forces including the army in civil/democratic governance are very limited
and strictly restricted to (1) defense of
territorial boundaries and integrity against foreign attacks; (2) in aid of
civil authority when legislatively and presidentially called upon in cases of
armed insurrection, coups, internal armed rebellion or intra State conflict;
and (3) State of emergency occasioned by widespread natural disaster or that of
immense magnitude; and manmade disaster such as when the country is in a state
of internal/external war.
The above clearly highlighted roles of the Nigerian Armed Forces
including the Army under democratic dispensation as clearly spelt out by
Section 217 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution are grossly incoherent with the
latest reasons given by the lopsidedly composed Nigerian Army as why it has
flooded the Southeast Zone with battalions of soldiers and armaments at no iota
of national or regional security collapse.
Therefore, the so called “Exercise Python Dance II” is totally
condemned and damned. By citing cases of “mindless assassinations (even in
religious places), attacks on security personnel and theft of weapons,
kidnappings, cultism, armed robbery/banditry and violent agitations by
secessionist groups, amongst other crimes”, as reasons for its latest
killer-mission in the Southeast, the Nigerian Army, not only lied unpardonably
to Nigerians, but has also mindlessly usurped and taken over the civil and
traditional functions of the Nigeria Police Force and other crime detection and
intelligence policing agencies in Nigeria.
By Section 217 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, the Nigerian Army
has no business dabbling into the traditional duties of the Nigeria Police
Force especially in the areas of street crimes of cultism, armed
robbery/banditry, willful homicide, kidnapping and policing of public
assemblies. Condemnably and despicably, the Nigerian Army has not only taken
over these functions, but now “invites the Police and the SSS, etc to join it”;
thereby undermining the country’s democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism.
The Army has also in the main abdicated its constitutional
duties by allowing the terrorist Fulani herdsmen and the Boko Haram insurgency
to continue to massacre hundreds of innocent and defenseless Nigerians every
month; while the same Army condones and abets same with utter alacrity and
dissipates energies and wastes billions of public funds pursuing and
traumatizing the innocent People of the Southeast Zone who have Godly chosen to
be law abiding and nonviolent.
As the Nigerian Army continues to rigmarole in absurdities and
pursuit of irrelevances, the media reports of mindless massacre of innocent and
defenseless Nigerians by the terrorist Fulani herdsmen and the Boko Haram
insurgency group have continued to saturate the country’s media and reading
space.
According to Amnesty International’s latest report of September
2017, the Boko Haram insurgents had between April and August 2017; a period of
five months, killed 223 defenseless civilians in the Northeast. Till date, the
religious identities of the slain have remained sketched and some observers
believe that such attacks are carefully planned and targeted at the endangered
non Muslim populations or settlements in northeast part of the country.
The mass killings have continued with the latest media reports
of massacre this week of 20 rural citizens by terrorist Fulani herdsmen in
Ancha Village of Maingo Community in Bassa Local Government of Plateau State;
as well as killing this week’s Wednesday and Thursday killing of eight people
by Boko Haram terrorists outside Maiduguri, in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria.
Yet, the Army has allowed these mass murderers to continue to prowl uncaught.
Despite the fact that Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution entrusts the
responsibilities of taming these mass murders and other acts of terrorism in
the hands of the Nigerian Armed Forces including the Army, the country’s armed
forces have deliberately turned blind eyes in utter manifestation of ethnic
bias and ethnic brotherhood especially in the area of massacre of thousands of
defenseless Nigerians by terrorist Fulani herdsmen. The armed forces have
concentrated more on chasing shadows; abandoning their core areas of
responsibility.
Till date, the Nigerian Armed Forces particularly the Army have
not told Nigerians sources of assault rifles and their handling
skills/training, recklessly used by the murderous Fulani herdsmen in mowing
down average of 1500 defenseless citizens every year since June 2015. This is
not to talk of woeful failure of the armed forces including the army in fishing
out the mass killers and putting them on trial.
The disclosure by the lopsidedly
composed Nigerian Army of its operation modes during the so called “Operation
Python Dance 11”; of “raids, cordon and search operations, anti-kidnapping
drills, road blocks, check points, patrols and show of force to curb the rising
threat to national security in the South Eastern part of the country” has
further exposed the merchandising and torture exercise aspect of the inglorious
operation.
It is also a monumental contradiction
to subject road users to roadblocks,
checkpoints and show of force and at the same time “respect their rights as
enshrined in the Constitution”. By use of checkpoints and roadblocks, a
floodgate of roadblock extortion is further expanded and provided for the
Nigerian Army, its combatants and commanders to smile to the bank, illicitly, with hundreds of millions of naira every month.
Apart from the fact that art of conventional soldiering is an
alien profession in matters of street crimes of cultism, kidnapping, armed
robbery/banditry, willful homicide, etc; these crimes are not expertly and professionally
checkmated using roadblocks or checkpoints. Their effective controls are best
done using effective policing intelligence, crime detection, raiding operations
in hideouts, thorough and professional criminal investigation and diligent
prosecution. Street crimes or traditional violent crimes do not in any way
involve use or deployment of battalions of soldiers to tackle. Soldiers are
quarks in art of taming or controlling street crimes.
These explained why in the Army’s so called “Operation Python
Dance 1”, fruitlessly conducted in the Southeast Zone, between 27th
November and 27th December 2016, not even a single fly as a credibly
suspected street criminal or violent crime offender was caught, investigated
and prosecuted. In matters of arrest and civil-criminal investigation, soldiers
are not extensively captured or empowered by Nigeria’s body of criminal laws
and their procedures. As a matter of fact, soldiers are interlopers in
controlling street crimes or traditional violent crimes!
Further, we make bold to
say that the tagging by the Nigerian Army of pro Biafra rallies as “violent
agitation”, may sound odd to the public, but it is deductively and
understandably the Army’s frustrated way of admitting that “there is no singly
existing armed rebellion in the Southeast Zone”; and as a result, “it must
create one as basis to raze the fast developing Southeast Zone to rubbles”.
We hereby call on the People of the Southeast Zone especially
the nonviolent pro Biafra groups to avoid being caught up by the ambush laid by
the present Federal Government and its lopsidedly composed coercive agencies. The
Nigerian Army should be given another “30th May 2017 treatment “by
making its latest unprovoked war operation in the Southeast a failed effort or
effort in futility.
As the Nigerian Army left
the shores of the Southeast in shame and agony in the evening of 30th
and morning of 31st May 2017 with all its corked rifles and
battle-ready combatants; without finding any blood of the innocent and
defenseless to spill, so shall it be made to leave the Zone again without any
innocent blood to spill or shed. Where innocent bloods are spilled, the
soldier-spillers shall be made to pay severely, if not now; then later, no
matter how long it would take!
The beloved and peace loving People of the Southeast Zone are
further called upon to show the Nigerian Army that “human brain is stronger
than the bullet or force of arms”, by deploying and using massively their
electronic gadgets including social media appliances to detect and capture the soldiers’
excesses especially at roadblocks/checkpoints, motor parks, streets, markets,
entertainment arenas, public functions, etc. Such excesses to be detected,
monitored and captured on ICT include extortions and their patterns, hatred
motivated or ethno-religious biased torture, artificial logjams or motorized
holds-up, hatred and extortionist motivated shooting/killing and other acts of
soldiering brigandage on Southeast roads or other parts thereof.
Signed:
For:
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety)
Emeka
Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
Mobile
Line: +2348174090052
For:
Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs)
1. Comrade
Aloysius Attah (+2348035090548)
For:
Civil Liberties Organization, Southeast Zone (Southeast CLO)
2. Comrade
Peter Onyegiri (+2347036892777)
For:
Centre for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy (CHRPA)
3. Comrade
Samuel Njoku (+2348039444628)
For:
Human Rights Organization of Nigeria (HRON)
4. Engineer
Rufus Duru (+2348037513519)
For:
Global Rights & Development International (GRDI)
5. Comrade
Chike Umeh ( +2348064869601)
For:
Society Advocacy Watch Project (SWAP)
6. Obianuju
Joy Igboeli, Esq. (+2348034186332)
For:
Anambra Human Rights Forum (ANHRF)
7. Comrade
Alex Olisa (+2348034090410)
For:
Southeast Good Governance Forum (SEGGF)
8. Jerry
Chukwuokoro, PhD (+2348035372962)
For:
International Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights Initiative (ISPHRI)
9. Mr.
Tochukwu Ezeoke (+447748612933)
For:
Igbo Ekunie Initiative (Pan Igbo Rights Advocacy Group)
10. Comrade
Vincent Ezekwume (+2348171793911)
For:
Civil Liberties Organization, Anambra State Branch (Anambra CLO)
11. Comrade
Nelson Nnana Nwafor (+2348033383708)
For:
Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Development
(FENRAD-Nigeria)
12. Comrade
Ozor Ugonna Kingsley (+2348138898669)
For:
Rural Engagement & Development Foundation (RED-Foundation)
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