TheConcerned Nigerians Group has filed a petition at the International CriminalCourt (ICC), demanding the arrest and prosecution of the immediate past Chief
of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, over allegations of human rights violationsand crimes against humanity while he was in office. Buratai alongside the otherservice chiefs were removed from office on Tuesday, January 26.The group in a letter filed by its Convener, Deji Adeyanju,asked the ICC to investigate, arrest and prosecute Buratai to serve as a deterrentto others who have made it a point of duty to ”indiscriminately abuse therights of Nigerians.”
The letter addressed to Fatou Bensouda, the court’s ChiefProsecutor reads
“We write to call on the International Criminal Court and alllovers of democracy and human rights in the world to immediately investigate,arrest and prosecute Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) who was just relieved ofhis duty as Chief of Army Staff for crimes against humanity and the Nigerianpeople.
It will be recalled that sometimes in 2015, Lieutenant GeneralBuratai (Rtd) ordered members of the Nigerian army to kill over 300 defenselessNigerian Shiite Muslims on the unjustifiable grounds that they ‘touched ageneral’s chest’. That event has been appropriately tagged the Zaira massacreand it has further worsened the insecurity situation in Nigeria. Shortlythereafter, Lieutenant Buratai (Rtd) ordered the Nigerian soldiers to killhundreds of Nigerian citizens of South Eastern extraction, in the guise ofsearching for members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
It is particularly noteworthy to mention that as at the timeLieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) ordered the massacre of IPOB members, thegroup had not been proscribed by the Nigeria Government. Additionally, we havebeen able to gather from different independent sources that Lieutenant GeneralBuratai (Rtd) personally ordered the killing of the innocent protesters atLekki toll gate, Lagos, on October 20, 2020.
It is on the basis of the foregoing, among other human rights abuses, that we call on the International Criminal Court and friends of Nigeria to urgently investigate, arrest and prosecute Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd), to serve as a deterrent to members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and their civilian collaborators who have made it a point of duty to indiscriminately abuse citizens’ human rights.”
