Group urges ICC to end rights violation in Africa

The Igbo Ekunie Initiative (IEI), a body comprising Igbo at home and the diaspora has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to end what it described as ‘historic culture of impunity’ in Africa.

The group also stated that the politicisation and or trivialisation of human rights’ violations in Africa and Nigeria in particular, is as a result of non-establishment of a human rights’ court by the African Union (AU), as well as the insufficient actions by the ICC, even in many instances where evidence of such violations abound.

“For all intents and purposes, Nigeria has had and continues to have the highest incidents of human rights violations in Africa, yet for unfathomable reasons, there has to date been no indictment of any Nigerian official for such crimes against humanity,” the group claimed.

IEI also claimed that: “the non-punishment or at least indictment of some past head of states and principal officers both military and civilian, who committed such crimes against humanity by the United Nations, the commonwealth, the African Union and other such agencies paved the way for subsequent genocides and human rights violations in Africa including the Rwanda genocide”.

According to them, the obvious implication of those omissions or lapses by the ICC is that the Nigerian State; army, police and leadership have continued with the impunity of committing human rights violations at will.

In a statement signed by Maazi Tochukwu Ezeoke and Lawrence Nwobu, President and secretary, respectively, the group insisted that the consequences of this has led to the massacre of over 2000 people between 2015 and 2016 alone either by the Nigerian army, Fulani herdsmen or other security agencies.

IEI also referred to the alleged massacre of nearly a 1000 Shiite adherents and 100 peaceful IPOB/MASSOB protesters in Aba, Onitsha, Asaba and other places with some abducted and killed inside a church, while others incarcerated or missing in a time of supposed democratic rule as the extent of human rights violations in Nigeria.

The group also requested for an update on the state of their petitions to ICC, urging it to break the jinx, investigate and indict Nigerian officials guilty of human rights violations.