Following the Chief Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai’s disclosure that the army has set up a committee to investigate the alleged killing of pro-Biafra protesters in Aba, Abia state, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), on Friday, rejected the committee.
IPOB said the committee is “is fundamentally riddled with conflict of interest and lacks the moral compass to conduct quality investigation in a case of this magnitude.”
This was contained in a statement signed by the spokespersons of IPOB, Emma Mmezu and Clifford Iroanya.
The secessionist group called for the setting up of an unbiased international team that will investigate the said killing.
The statement reads: “IPOB has noted that the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff and Borno State born Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, openly confessed and admitted that soldiers of the Nigerian Army opened fire and killed defenceless Biafrans who were conducting prayer sessions inside the football field of Ngwa High Schoool, Aba in Abia State.”
“This genocidal action of the Nigerian Army happened on February 9, 2016. According to newspaper reports, Lt. Gen. Buratai argued that his “soldiers could not have opened fire on the activists without provocation.” The Army Chief further stated that “We have our rules of engagement, the troops cannot just open fire.”
“While dismissing the constitutionally-backed respect for human rights and sanctity of human lives as guaranteed in section-33 of the 1999 Constitution, Lt.-Gen. Buratai boasted that in situations that entail the use of fire, the protection of human rights does not apply.”
“But we could not locate in any of the 320 sections and seven schedules of the 1999 Constitution, which section that supported the dastardly acts of his soldiers. Neither did we find in any of the 292 sections and four schedules of the Armed Forces Act, CAP – A20 LFN 2004, where it stipulated the shooting of unarmed, peaceful civilians in peacetime within the Federation of Nigeria.”
“In addition, the civilized world will be interested to know what the Nigerian Army’s Rules of Engagement (ROE) are when confronted with Christians praying in a secluded ground. In his conclusion, Lt.-Gen. Buratai assured that “we are already investigating it. When such incidents involve the loss of lives we usually conduct an investigation – that is our procedure.”
“From every word in the confessions of Lt.-Gen. Buratai, it is now indisputable that unarmed Biafrans were mowed down by the Nigerian soldiers. The IPOB do hereby demand the convocation of an impartial investigative team and not the group hurriedly set up by the Army Chief considering that the Army is the aggressor in this case.”
“We further assert that the only credible entity which can carry out in-depth investigation is the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague. The so-called investigating team arranged by the COAS is fundamentally riddled with conflict of interest and lacks the moral compass to conduct quality investigation in a case of this magnitude.”
“Therefore, the United Nations Human Rights Commission and other allied organizations should intervene and work with the ICC to conduct a thorough investigation now that the Nigerian Army through Lt.-Gen. Buratai have confessed that they actually shot and killed unarmed Biafrans at Aba on the 9th of February 2016.”
