By Abiodun
Israel
A few days
ago, the Nigerian Army headquarters drew the attention of the country and the
international community to the sustained efforts of some foreign agencies like
Amnesty International (AI) to destroy its reputation. It said the international
organization is planning the release of another damning report on the army. The
report turned out to not just target that institution but also aimed for the
nation’s jugular by seeking to undermine institutions that exist to protect its
integrity.
A statement
by the Acting Director Army Public Relations,
Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman disclosed the intention of AI to soon release
a report with contents that falsely
label Nigerian soldiers as mass murderers of defenceless IPOB/MASSOB protesters in the
South-eastern part of the country.
We are
increasingly concerned about the obviously unhealthy manner AI is dabbling
negatively and frequently into the internal security affairs of Nigeria, with a
pattern that portrays it as desperate to weaken and destroy the Nigerian Army
and Nigeria. We have pointed it out
severally on this medium the inaccuracy of AI’s many reports which do not hide
the intent to persecute the Nigerian Army.
For example,
a report by the organization mid this year, which accused soldiers of abuse or
violations of human rights in its detention facilities in the Northeast where
the army is battling insurgency, turned out to be patently false. Groups like
Coalition of Civil Society Groups (COCSG), led by its President, Mr. Etuk Williams later proved the report as
false and only a scheme by AI to dampen the spirit of soldiers in prosecuting
the anti-terror war.
We find it
necessary to restate that Nigerians cannot quantify the relief gotten for the
country by the Nigerian Army through its successful suppression of
insurrections. Those who have devoted time to closely monitor happenings in
Nigeria would have no difficulty understanding the recklessness with which some aggrieved groups take to the streets to
violently vent their anger.
The
involvement of the Nigerian army in violent internal crises through its constitutional mandates of observing its
Military Aid to Civil Authority (MACA) and Military Aid to Civil Powers (MACP)
has saved Nigeria a lot of troubles, to describe it mildly. No one is in doubt
about the fact that dissidents groups all over the country are armed to the
teeth and that people delight more in violence than peaceful or amicable
resolution of differences.
There are
not just many, but frequent instances where whole communities or regions are
held to ransom by armed criminal gangs within Nigeria. These gangs often
display weapons and the sophistry most times make mockery of civil- orientated
security agents like the police that has
core mandate to tame such uprisings. It necessitates government’s deployment of
soldiers.
At this
point, it means the protesters, criminal gangs, separatists or dissident groups
have launched a mini-war on peaceful citizens and the country. This scenario
does not beg for levity in its handling
by soldiers.
We refer and
draw attention to the sophistication of weapons in the possession of Boko Haram
Terrorists, in the Northeast or armed bandits and cattle rustlers in the
Northwest, Niger Delta militants in the South -South and secession agitators
such as IPOB in the Southeast. These
AI’s civil protestors or rebels freely use these weapons even against security
agents in the guise of protests or rebellion to draw attention to their
perceived grievances.
We hasten to
say, Nigeria has experienced unjustified deaths of its security personnel in the
hands of these hoodlums who personify violence not just to the security agents,
but also to the communities where they operate.
We are
therefore saddened by the continuous and consistent vilification of the
Nigerian Army by AI, a foreign
organization we suspect has links with forces bent on destabilizing Nigeria.
Consequently,
the alarm by the Nigerian Army Headquarters about AI’s planned release of a
report it obviously cooked on alleged mass killings of MASSOB/IPOB defenseless protesters by “the military
between August 2015 and August 2016,” is highly deplorable and balderdash. How
the AI arrived at its casualty figures and the conclusion that IPOB members
were defenceless is what beats the imagination.
It is
logical that a civil protest which does not become uncontrollably violent does
require the intervention of soldiers, but left to the Nigeria Police, the Civil
Defence Corps and other arms of civil security.
In the IPOB incident AI has purportedly prepared its tainted report,
this sect of secession agitators are famed for their cruelty and acts of
violence in a manner that threatens or poses grave danger to Nigeria’s internal
security. No part of the Southeast has
not tasted their bitter pill and in agonizing doses.
The army
submitted that “ Security agencies are always targeted for attack by the
MASSOB/IPOB instruments of barbarism and cruelty. For instance, in the protests
of 30 – 31 May 2016, more than 5 personnel of the Nigeria Police were killed,
while several soldiers were wounded, Nigeria Police vehicles were burnt down
same as several others of the Nigerian Army that were vandalized.”
Can Amnesty
International explain to the whole world how a group capable of summary
execution of armed security agents on lawful duty, commit acts of arson on
security vehicles would be unarmed or performed such acts with bare hands?
The tendency
of IPOB Biafran agitators to propagate
hate campaigns in the Southeast, kill
and burn people from the settler
communities, who are from other parts of
Nigeria is widespread and disarmingly consistent.
“Such reign
of hate, terror and ethno-religious controversies that portend grave
consequences for national security have been averted severally through the
responsiveness of the Nigerian Army and members of the security agencies,” the
Army had noted.
It is in
this light that we identify with the submissions of the Nigerian Army in
sighting more the sinister motive of AI
in dabbling into Nigeria’s internal affairs for reasons for ruination of the country rather than attempts to right perceived
wrongs. In executing this suspicious paid job, Amnesty International turns a
blind eye to objectivity, fairness and simple logic.
In the not
too distant past, Nigerians have not only condemned such reports from AI, but
called on the FGN to initiate moves for the investigation and possible
prosecution of Amnesty International at the International Criminal Court (ICC)
at the Hague before it fully executes its plot to ruin Nigerian Army and
embolden dissidents groups against Nigeria.
It is
instructive to remind that aside the existence of the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) which probes issues of human rights abuses, the Nigerian Army
under the COAS Gen. Yusuf Buratai has returned the army on its path of
professionalism and respect for human rights in their engagement with the civil
populace.
To
appropriately address occasional wrongs, Buratai has also opened up a Human
Rights Desk at the Army Headquarters in Abuja to receive and probe such
complaints from the public. But the Nigerian Army has not received such
petition from the IPOB members AI is set to promote with allegations of mass
murder. It is now imperative for these
groups and most especially the Federal Government of Nigeria to initiate moves
to probe activities of AI at ICC. We believe the time to act is NOW.
Abiodun
writes from UI, Ibadan, Oyo State.
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