EMU, CAN, JNI, South-South Leaders Deplore Attacks
THE United Nations (UN) is taking the post-election violence in Nigeria beyond the realm of the country’s internal affairs.
Without encroaching on the powers of the Federal Government to maintain law and order, the UN through the International Criminal Court (ICC) says it will investigate the crisis to determine whether crimes against humanity were committed.
In a statement from the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said it was following the mayhem in Nigeria from the National Assembly to the presidential polls to determine whether crimes abhorred by the global body had been committed.
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| Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo |
Among those who deplored the violence and demanded the probe of its masterminds are the leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Jama’atu Nasir Islam (JNI), South-South Elders Forum, the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU), and the Youth Adolescent Reflection and Action Centre, (YARAC).
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed yesterday that over 8,000 persons had been displaced by the crisis in Bauchi State.
In the statement made available to journalists yesterday, ICC said: “It is closely following the situation in Nigeria and is concerned with the outbreak of violence surrounding the National Assembly and presidential elections of April 2011.
“In the context of its ongoing preliminary examination activities, the Office will seek to establish whether the recent violence may have been planned and organised and whether crimes falling within the court’s jurisdiction may have been committed.
“The Office is mindful that the upcoming governorship elections on April 26 could lead to further violence. Those, who commit atrocities to gain power will be held to account,” Moreno-Ocampo said.
He added: “in accordance with the complementarity principle, the Office will, in the first place, support national investigations into the violence and its perpetrators.“
The ICC, which is a UN court, has been raising concern on developments in Nigeria, especially recurring religious violence in the northern part of the country.
Based in The Hague, the ICC is an independent and permanent tribunal with the jurisdiction to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. But it can only prosecute when and if a UN member state, which is signatory to its protocol and treaty, is unwilling or unable to do so.
In Kaduna State, CAN and JNI have blamed the state government and religious preachers over the bloody crisis in the state where several residents and their property were destroyed.
At a meeting with officials of the state government to look into the causes of the post-election violence, which erupted last Monday, the leaders on the platform of Kaduna State Inter-Religious Harmony Committee, accused the government of not taking proactive measures to avert the crisis. They urged parents to educate their wards to imbibe the necessary morals for peace to prevail in the state.
The state chairman of CAN, Rev. Samuel Kujiat, advised the government to take necessary measures to protect lives and property, especially those living in rural areas.
Kujiat suggested that the religious and opinion leaders should document their resolutions and ensure that government provides lasting solution to crises in the state.
The JNI Chairman, Alhaji Jafa’aru Makarfi, urged the government to adopt proactive security measures ahead of the governorship polls in the state.
The Deputy Governor Ramallan Yero pledged that the government would address issues raised by the leaders.
The Eastern Mandate Union (EMU), which also deplored the violence, warned that it would not accept any situation where certain persons would hide under the cover of election protest to attack Ndigbo.
While warning that Ndigbo might be forced into aggressive defence of their lives and property and vowed “not to watch this kind of pogrom to happen again.”
In a statement, EMU Director of Publicity, Ochie Malachy Chuma, charged the perpetrators and sponsors of the disturbances to sheathe their sword because “no section of the country has the monopoly of violence.”
“We wish to warn the perpetrators of the present mass slaughter of our people in some parts of northern Nigeria and also their sponsors that 2011 is not 1966; that the circumstances of 1966 and today are not the same; all those implicated in the present bloodshed would be held accountable not just in Nigeria but also by the international community. Let no one be deluded to think that such massive liquidation of our people would go unnoticed and unchallenged.”
A political analyst and member of the South- South Elders Forum, Prince Ernest Okojie, yesterday asked Nigerians to support Jonathan to deliver his electoral promises.
Okojie in a statement condemned the post- election violence, killing and destruction of property that trailed the presidential polls, which he said international observers and stakeholders adjudged as the most free, fair and credible exercise since 1999.
The CPC governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chief Osita Okechukwu, has blamed the violence on the failure of zoning policy introduced by the PDP by former President Olusegun obasanjo.
He said crisis over the presidential election could have been avoided if the PDP had allowed the zoning arrangement to succeed by ensuring that the North served out its tenure after the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Speaking in Enugu yesterday, Okechukwu, called on Jonathan to, as a matter of urgency, consider the remote and immediate causes of the disturbances through a judicial commission of inquiry.
Meanwhile, the number of internally-displaced persons (IDP) in last Monday’s protests and political violence has risen to over 8,030 persons in nine towns and communities in Bauchi State, the North-East Coordinator of NEMA, Aliyu Sambo, has said.
In an interview with The Guardian yesterday in Maiduguri, Sambo said many of the houses and shops of the displaced persons were set ablaze, including mosques and churches that are yet to be ascertained by the agency’s assessment and rescue team.
To cope with the rising number of IDP, he said the agency had set up nine resettlement camps, with the provision of food items, blankets and other basic needs to cushion the shocks and possible outbreaks of diseases at the camps.
He told The Guardian that of the nine resettlement camps, Azare and Katagum local councils have the highest number of 4,300, while Jama’re has 1,700.
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