Politics
By Benprince Ezeh
THE Human Rights Investigative Justice for Accountability has said that its association will work tirelessly to pursue justice for the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and Nnamdi Kanu, its leader.
Speaking in a YouTube interview monitored by Realnews on Saturday, September 18, Allen White, formal chief investigator for United Nations-backed Special Forces for Sierra Leone, said that the systematic killing of the civilian population in the eastern part of Nigeria would soon come to an end.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB as you know is very concerned about what is going on in Nigeria as a whole, but most importantly, the plight of the people of IPOB and the ongoing genocide, which is the wide-scale and systematic killing of civilian population targeting a specific group, which is the IPOB and what they had suffered since 1970.
“He sought our assistance, he retained us, we are in Washington DC, but we are actually global. He retained us to promote human rights campaign for IPOB to seek justice and accountability for all Biafrans related to IPOB worldwide.
“There was a wide-scale systematic killing of IPOB which was been conducted by the Nigerian government. So we filed a criminal complaint with International Criminal Court, ICC, on behalf of the IPOB on Wednesday, and requested that they conduct or open an official investigation, documenting the atrocities that are occurring against the IPOB,” he said.
White, who was part of the human rights investigation justice for accountability for several decades and served as chief investigator for United Nations-backed special force for Sierra Leone for indicting numerous individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and most notably, Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, was asked if he is assuring all Biafrans that it is possible to bring those who abused their human rights in Nigeria to book.
He said: “Achieving this won’t be an easy task, but would be accomplished with the help of right hands. I need to be realistic and honest, you are right this is not an easy task, but when you do the right thing for the right reason, things happen. I was told time and time again that you would never get Charles Taylor that it will never happen.
“You know we are a group of people and we have a lot of people working with and for us that want to seek justice, but unfortunately right now because of things going on in the world, Nigeria is being lost in the shuffle. When we put Nigeria on the map on Wednesday, not just that we notified ICC of what’s going on, we also notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations. We also included Defence Secretary in the UK, and we also put up a notice to the High Commissioner of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.
“So globally, we have spotlighted what’s going on in Nigeria right now and not just what is going on in Northern Nigeria with Boko Haram but some excess by the Nigerian forces.
“Quite frankly, this is a global problem and needs to be addressed. Nigeria is the largest country in the African continent, and what is happening right now is of international security concern and it should be.
“What we will guarantee Biafrans that are listening to this, people specifically affiliated with IPOB is that we will work tirelessly to pursue justice as we did with Charles Taylor and we saw justice with the people of Sierra Leone. That’s how the court works. Right now, we also work in trying to establish a war crime in economic crimes in Liberia. So we are very active in the continent right now because Nigeria, cannot be on its own as it is a signatory to an international court.”
According to him, the ICC in my opinion has no other option, but to open an official investigation to investigate and prosecute those crimes,” White said.
Answering a question on whether the international communities are aware of what the Nigerian government is doing to IPOB, White said that “the world and international communities will be aware of the atrocities and war crimes being committed by the Nigerian government on IPOB.
“Yes, that’s what I am teaching and that’s what we pledged on when we met with the leader and discussed this. This is exactly what we have done and demonstrates this and we have the right team and the right people that know how to get this done, though it’s going to take time, but we will pursue this and get it done on behalf of the IPOB.”
He added: “It’s very difficult to get these things done, but we have been there and had done that. Think about it, we started about three and half years, we were able to arrest the first sitting head of state ever for war crimes. In literally one week later, also not directly with the court, but indirectly with the court and we collaborated with them and arrested his son, Chucky Taylor in the United States for torturing many witnesses, but one of which was my witness. He was convicted and received 97 years sentenced for torture. So we have the right team, we have the right perseverance, and that is what we plan on doing.”
White, who concluded by saying that confidential report regarding the torture received by Kanu in Kenya has all been submitted.
“We submitted a confidential report, including all of that information, but what we can’t say publicly is that we in fact addressed the wide-scale systematic killings targeting the IPOB, but we specifically referenced that he was illegally abducted, it’s called the enforced disappearance, which means he was kept in special detention, which is violation and crime against humanity.
“He was tortured and was illegally rendition from Kenya, as being alleged from Kenya to Nigeria. So all of those crimes that I mentioned, are crimes against humanity, which falls under article 7 of the Rome statute, which falls under the jurisdiction of the ICC and of the Office of the Prosecutor of the investigation of this specific charges that they would look into,” he said.
– Sept. 22, 2021 @ 09:50 GMT | C.E
Tags: Allen White Biafra Charles Taylor International Criminal Court IPOB Nnamdi Kanu Washington DC
