Group Hails ICC Decision to Investigate War Crimes In Nigeria

'Dotun Akintomide
Writer

Ad

The Controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline Is Nearing Completion

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), 64.5% complete, will connect Uganda’s oilfields to Tanzania’s Port of Tanga for global crude exports. Despite $3.6 billion already spent and new financing secured, the project continues to face backlash from human rights groups and environmental activists. Critics cite displacement of communities and threats to ecosystems, while developers…

Shell Reports 51 Leaks In Niger Delta This Year

2027: Amaechi Vows to Defeat Tinubu if He Wins ADC’s Presidential Ticket

• Accuses APC of diverting public funds for elections... By Abiola Olawale  Former Minister of Transportation and two-term governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has asserted that he would defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 Nigerian presidential election if he wins the presidential ticket of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC). Speaking during a Twitter…

Countries With the Most Seniors (2025-2100P)

European nations currently lead as countries with the most people aged 65+, but their increases through the century are projected to be slower and less extreme. On the other hand, China is projected to move from outside the top ranks in 2025 to the world’s 3rd most senior-heavy population by 2100. The world has entered…

Ad

...Demands Probe Extension To Lekki Shootings 

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has commended the International Criminal Court (ICC) for concluding a decade-long preliminary investigation into crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed by Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces, to pave way for full investigation to commence.

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor had made the announcement on the Preliminary Investigations on December 11 and added that the Nigerian government has thus far failed in its obligations to hold those responsible to account.

In a statement issued in Lagos by the Director of Programmes, CAPPA, Philip Jakpor, the group commended the ICC for the decision to probe the atrocities.

It also called on the ICC to extend its probe to the Lekki shooting incident on 20 October, 2020 during the nationwide #EndSARS protests which left scores dead amid strenuous denial by the Nigerian army and police.

On 20 November, CAPPA delivered a petition to the ICC which had signatures of 10,027 individuals and 154 organisations from 75 countries requesting a thorough investigation of the killings and prosecution of the identified individuals behind it.

Among the signatories to the petition are two former UN special rapporteurs, several members of the United States Congress, and Cornell and Harvard University professors. A dozen notable international figures also voiced their solidarity with the movement for justice in Nigeria.

CAPPA started the petition on October 23 following what it anticipated would be “unlikely outcomes” of the judicial panels set up to investigate the cases of rights abuses linked to SARS and government initiatives supposedly targeted at addressing the corruption in the system.

After the incident there have been disturbing daily reports of police arresting identified protesters from their homes, denying them access to their families, lawyers, and prominent supporters of the protests denied their right to travel out of the country and use of their accounts, among others.

CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said: “While we commend the ICC for its quest to secure justice for victims of appalling crimes committed allegedly by all parties in the conflict in Northeast, the gruesome shootings in Lekki add another layer to the investigation they must conduct in Nigeria”.

“As we have said over time, these happenings are most unacceptable. Suddenly Nigerians are waking up to the reality that the civic space is shrinking. We are in firm belief that having acknowledged receipt of our petition, the ICC will swing into action”, Oluwafemi stated.

Ad

X whatsapp