AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Security agents killed 150 pro-Biafra agitato

24-11-2016 

·     Military fired live bullets into IPOB gatherings

·     Demands sanction for perpetrators

 

Nigerian security forc­es have been ac­cused of poor crowd control and mass killing of law-abiding pro-Bia­fra agitators during their gath­erings and rallies in various parts of the South-East geopo­litical zone.

 

In a report it released on Wednesday, renowned global human rights body, Amnesty International (AI), alleged that Nigerian security agents killed 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protest­ers in “a chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and vi­olence.”

 

The AI said its analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and 146 eyewitness testimonies on pro-Biafra demonstrations and other gatherings between August 2015 and August 2016 consistently showed that the military fired live ammunition with little or no warning to disperse crowds.

It said the videos and photo­graphs showed Indigenous Peo­ples of Biafra (IPOB) gatherings and members of security forces in the process of committing the violations, as well as the victims of these violations while a total of 193 interviews were also con­ducted.

The group said it also found evidence of mass extrajudicial ex­ecutions by security forces, includ­ing at least 60 people shot dead within two days in connection with events marking this year’s Biafra Remembrance Day.

The report indicated that “on 30th September, 2016, Amnesty International shared the key find­ings of this report with the Min­ister of Justice and Attorney-Gen­eral of the Federation (AGF), the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Ministry of For­eign Affairs, the Minister of Inte­rior, the Inspector-General of Po­lice and the Director-General of the State Security Services (SSS).

“Responses were received from the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police but neither answered the ques­tions raised in the report,” it said.

According to the Interim Di­rector of Amnesty Internation­al in Nigeria, Makmid Kamara, ”this deadly repression of pro-Bi­afra activists is further stoking ten­sions in the South-East of Nigeria.

“This reckless and trigger-happy approach to crowd con­trol has caused at least 150 deaths and we fear the actual total might be far higher. The Nigerian gov­ernment’s decision to send in the military to respond to pro-Biafra events seems to be in large part to blame for this excessive blood­shed. The authorities must im­mediately launch an impartial investigation and bring the per­petrators to book.”

Since August 2015, there have been a series of protests, marches and gatherings by members and supporters of IPOB who have been seeking the creation of an Independent Biafran state almost 50 years after a similar attempt led to a civil war in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970.

Tensions further mount­ed when IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested on 14th Oc­tober, 2015. He has remained in detention despite court rulings to free him.

Kamara continued: “By far the largest number of pro-Bia­fra activists were killed on Biafra Remembrance Day on 30th May, 2016 when an estimated 1,000 IPOB members and supporters gathered for a rally in Onitsha, Anambra State. The night before the rally, the security forces raided homes and a church where IPOB members were sleeping.

“On Remembrance Day itself, the security forces shot people in several locations. Amnesty Inter­national has not been able to ver­ify the exact number of extrajudi­cial executions, but estimates that at least 60 people were killed and 70 injured in these two days. The real number is likely to be higher.

“Ngozi (not her real name), a 28-year-old mother of one, told Amnesty International that her husband left in the morning for work but called her shortly after­wards to say that the military had shot him in his abdomen.

“He said he was in a mili­tary vehicle with six others, four of whom were already dead. She told Amnesty International: “He started whispering and said they just stopped (the vehicle).

“He was scared they would kill the remaining three of them that were alive... He paused and told me they were coming clos­er. I heard gunshots and I did not hear a word from him after that.”

The next day Ngozi searched for her husband and found his body in a nearby mortuary. The mortuary attendants told her that the military brought him and six others. She saw three gunshot wounds: one in his abdomen and two in his chest, which confirmed her fear that the military had killed him.

Amnesty International said that it reviewed videos of a peace­ful gathering of IPOB members and supporters at Aba Nation­al High School on 9th February, 2016. The Nigerian military sur­rounded the group and then fired live ammunition at them without any prior warning, the group stat­ed.

Citing eyewitnesses and local human rights activists, Amnes­ty said that many of the Aba pro­testers were rounded up and tak­en away by the military. “On 13th February, 13 corpses, including those of men known to have been taken by the military, were discov­ered in a pit near the Aba highway.

“It is chilling to see how these soldiers gunned down peaceful IPOB members. The video evi­dence shows that this was a mil­itary operation with the intent to kill and injure.Eyewitness testimo­ny and video footage of the rallies, marches and meetings demon­strate that the Nigerian military deliberately used deadly force.

“In many of the incidents de­tailed in the report, including the Aba High School protest, the mili­tary applied tactics designed to kill and neutralize an enemy, rather than to ensure public order at a peaceful event.

“All IPOB gatherings docu­mented by Amnesty Internation­al were largely peaceful. In those cases where there were pockets of violence, it was mostly in reaction to shooting by the security forces”, Kamara said.

Eyewitnesses told Amnes­ty International that some pro­testers threw stones, burned tyres and in one incident shot at the po­lice. Regardless, these acts of vio­lence and disorder did not justify the level of force used against the whole assembly, AI insisted.

Amnesty International said that it also discovered disturb­ing pattern of hundreds of ar­bitrary arrests and ill-treatment by soldiers during and after IPOB events, including arrests of wounded victims in hospitals, and torture and other ill-treatment of detainees.

“Vincent Ogbodo (not his real name), a 26-year-old trad­er, said he was shot on Remem­brance Day in Nkpor and hid in a gutter. When soldiers found him, they poured acid on him.

“He told Amnesty Inter­national: “I covered my face. I would have been blind by now. He poured acid on my hands. My hands and body started burn­ing. The flesh was burning…they dragged me out of the gutter. They said I’ll die slowly”.

“A man who was detained in Onitsha Barracks after the Re­membrance Day shooting on 30th May, 2016 told Amnesty Interna­tional: “Those in the guard room (detention) were flogged every morning. The soldiers tagged it ‘Morning Tea’.

“Despite this overwhelming evidence that the Nigerian securi­ty forces committed gross human rights violations, including extra­judicial executions and torture, no investigation has been carried out by the authorities.

“A similar pattern of lack of accountability for gross vio­lations by the military has been documented in other parts of Ni­geria including the North East in the context of operations against Boko Haram.

“Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the govern­ment of Nigeria to initiate in­dependent investigations into evidence of crimes under inter­national law, and President Buhari has repeatedly promised that Am­nesty International’s reports would be looked into. However, no con­crete steps have been taken.

“In the very rare cases where an investigation is carried out, there is no follow up. As a result of the apparent lack of political will to investigate and prosecute per­petrators of such crimes, the mili­tary continues to commit human rights violations and grave crimes with impunity.

“In addition to investigations, the Nigerian government must ensure adequate reparations for the victims, including the families.

“They should end all use of military in policing demonstra­tions and ensure the police are adequately instructed, trained and equipped to deal with crowd-con­trol situations in line with interna­tional law and standards. In par­ticular, firearms must never be used as a tool for crowd control.”