… Intersociety
…hails Court verdict against invasion of Lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor’s House and UN Rights Council’s damning report against Nigeria and Kenya on Nnamdi Kanu’s unlawful rendition and continued captivity
Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, Tuesday, 26th July 2022
Declaratory Condemnation Of Attacks On Ejiofor’s Home And Award Of N107M As Damages
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law has welcomed the two positive developments above mentioned. The judgment of the Federal High Court, Awka Division, which strongly declared as illegal, oppressive and strongly condemnable the commando style invasion of the peaceful ancestral home of Barr Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Nnamdi Kanu’s Lead-Lawyer at the hours of the Blue-Law in June 2021 and killings, abductions and property burnings that followed; are clear acts of State brigandage, arson, persecution and terrorism. The monetary awards, though unmerited, are further recognition by the Honorable Federal High Court that the Nigerian Government and top heads of its security forces have brazenly turned the State coercive instruments into instruments for wanton destruction of the lives of innocent and defenseless citizens and their peacefully acquired properties. This is even when the Criminal Laws of Nigeria are fundamentally established for defense of innocent and defenseless private and corporate persons and their properties. That the present central Government of Nigeria could turn its State instruments of coercion against an innocent and professional person simply because he is exercising his constitutional and professional rights to defend any citizen or body corporate as a Lawyer irrespective of the gravity of offense(s) alleged or under prosecution is totally strange and unheard of.
It must be remembered that the ugly incident of June 2021 in the Lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor’s ancestral home at Oraifite, during which his two domestic staffers were abducted, elder brother abducted but later freed, and personal assistant (Okoro) abducted and later burnt to ashes along with the Lawyer’s Camry Car; was not the first time such animalistic dastardly act was perpetrated by murderous State actors. In Dec 2019, the Lawyer was nearly killed after soldiers of the Nigerian Military invaded and attacked his ancestral abode at Oraifite during which dozens of surrounding houses, sales stores, parked automobiles and fixed properties were set ablaze. Intersociety was at the center of advocacy for justice in the two incidents and was also the first to have reported them. Till date, the Nigerian Government authorities have kept mute and shielded the perpetrators. The worst of it all is continued denial and refusal of the Nigerian Government and its security agencies involved to free the two abducted domestic staffers held unlawfully since June last year. This is even when it had severally been independently confirmed that the country’s secret police (DSS) are presently holding them without trial or release. It was further reported as contained in the available Court processes that not only that the two detainees are sharing the same captivity facility with the detained IPOB Leader but also one of them has visited him twice or more. One of the recently freed DSS captives had also confirmed seeing them during his recent captivity in the DSS dungeon in Abuja.
Intersociety hereby strongly calls on DSS to set them free without further delays or excuses and denials. We also call for the enforcement to the letter of the Awka Federal High Court judgment delivered against the Army, Police, DSS and others. The monetary awards attached to the landmark verdict must also be complied with and fully paid by the respondents/defendants in compliance with the Court Order. In the event of failure to comply, further orders of the High Court of Justice including a Garnishee Order must be obtained to retrieve the monetary awards from the Dedicated Accounts of the named corporate perpetrators.
A Job Well Done For UN Rights Commission Report On Nigeria: Intersociety wishes to commend the UN Rights Council on Arbitrary Detention over its recent landmark decision concerning the unlawful rendition of IPOB Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from Kenya to Nigeria by the authorities of the Governments of Nigeria and Kenya and his continued detention without proper trial under the captivity of the Nigeria’s secret police, the DSS. It is sad and deeply disappointing that the present Government of Nigeria has continued to make mockery of regional and international treaties the country willingly acceded to, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, enacted by UN in 1976 and willingly acceded to or ratified by Nigeria in 1993.
As exhaustively explained or elaborated by the UN Rights Council Working Committee on Arbitrary Detention, the Nigerian Government under Buhari has remained the worst violator of the country’s regional and international treaty obligations; and by this, the present Government of the country is undermining the international peace and security under UN and AU Systems; thereby constituting a threat to same. The latest UN bashing on Nigeria, is one out of numerous similar pronouncements or verdicts in recent times as cited in the UN Report including various verdicts of the ECOWAS and the AU Human and Peoples’ Rights Courts and similar others by respected UN bodies and local and international human rights advocacy and research groups including Amnesty International, the Christian Solidarity Int’l, the Intersociety, the UK Inter-Parliamentary Committee on International Religious Freedom or Belief and the International Committee on Nigeria and respected others.
Sadly and shockingly, these reports have totally continued to be observed by the present Nigerian Government in monumental breach. Nigeria has continued to refuse to ensure speedy fair trial of the IPOB Leader and conclusion of same; or discharging and acquitting him for want of indictable or triable evidence defined and known to written Criminal Laws of Nigeria. Instead, the country under Buhari has continued to prove that it is a ‘Government of vindictiveness, ethnic hatred and profiling’. The Nigerian Government has gone against all known constitutional rights provisions on arrested and detained persons by detaining them arbitrarily without fair and proper trials. This is also to the extent that the Government of Nigeria under Buhari has recklessly resorted to indiscriminate use of ‘hate profiling and prosecutorial vindictiveness’ which clearly amount to State persecution of the arrested, unprocessed and untried citizens or meting out such grave treatments on them not because they voluntarily and consciously offended the written treasonable offenses but they are being mistreated on the grounds of their ethnicity or tribe and faith or religion.
Judgment Day Is Very Close For Perpetrators Of Horrendous State Crimes
Finally, Intersociety is strongly calling on all victims of horrendous State Crimes in Nigeria under Buhari to buckle up for the JUDGMENT DAY IS VERY CLOSE! This is considering the fact that time is speedily when all perpetrators of horrendous State crimes in Nigeria under Buhari will be called upon to account for conduct atrocities perpetrated. It is therefore the conscientious duty of leading and respected local and international human rights groups and activist lawyers to prepare to come to the aid of victims of horrendous State Crimes and other internationally prohibited acts in Nigeria or any part thereof especially dating back to August 2015 by assisting them in filing compensatory and punitive lawsuits in Nigeria and across international borders for purpose of ensuring that the victims get adequate compensations for wrongs done to them. The criminal aspect of the local and international justice actions will be targeted at securing the behind the bar punishments against those responsible for the perpetration and perpetuation of the horrendous State Crimes. These are in accordance with the ‘International Law’s Principle of Complimentarity’, as most, if not all the horrendous State Crimes perpetrated in Nigeria under Buhari have never been properly investigated and remedied within the framework of domestic judicial process by the authorities in Nigeria or any part thereof; thereby making their perpetrators and sponsors to remain on the prowl as untouchable repeat-offenders.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist)
Board Chair
Ndidiamaka Chinaza Bernard Esquire
Head, Int’l Justice and Human Rights
Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire
Head, Campaign and Publicity
Contacts:
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Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: https://intersociety-ng.org