A human rights group, Concerned Nigerians has called on the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands and all lovers of democracy and human rights in the world to investigate, arrest and prosecute the sacked Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai. The Convener of the group, Comrade Deji Adeyanju who made the call in a press statement said the call is based on the alleged crimes against humanity and the Nigerian people committed by Buratai.
The statement reads, “It will be recalled that sometimes in 2015, Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) ordered members of the Nigerian army to kill over 300 defenseless Nigerian Shiite Muslims on the unjustifiable ground that they “touched a general’s chest. “That event has been appropriately tagged the Zaira massacre and it has further worsened the insecurity situation in Nigeria. Shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Buratai (Rtd) ordered the Nigerian soldiers to kill hundreds of Nigerian citizens of South Eastern extraction, in the guise of searching for members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“It is particularly noteworthy to mention that as at the time Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) ordered the massacre of IPOB members, the group had not been proscribed by the Nigeria Government. Additionally, we have been able to gather from different independent sources, that Lieutenant General Buratai (Rtd) personally ordered the killing of the innocent protesters at Lekki toll gate, Lagos, on October 20, 2020.
The Convener further noted that “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”.
The human rights group has directed its letter demanding prosecution of Buratai to the Chief Prosecutor Office of the Prosecutor, ICC, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda and copied the US Embassy, British High Commission and European Union in Nigeria.
