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… 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

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 and oppressive and condemned in totality the commando styled invasion of the peaceful ancestral home of Barr Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Nnamdi Kanu’s Lead-Lawyer at the hours of the Blue-Law last year’s June and killing and property violence and abductions that followed; are clear acts of State brigandage, arson, persecution and terrorism.

The monetary awards, though unmerited, are further recognition by the Honourable Presiding Judge/Federal High Court, that the Nigerian Government and its security forces and heads of their High Commands, 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 gravity of offense(s) alleged or being investigated or under prosecution; is totally unheard of, and a height of State partisanship, wickedness, intolerance, crudity and terrorism.

This is more so when the same Nigerian Government and its security high commands are turning blind eyes on Jihadists and other extremists running riot and wrecking torrential havocs on innocent and defenseless citizens and their properties especially in the Northern parts of the country.

It has never been reported anywhere or heard that lawyers representing those Jihadists have had themselves killed or maimed and their homes and properties invaded and burned down or destroyed by the State coercive agents.

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 staffs 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 Nigerian Government and its atrocious security operatives.

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 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.

Furthermore, 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 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 central Government in the country is not only grossly undermining the international peace and security under UN and AU Systems but also constituted 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 Rights Courts and other UN Bodies as well as several other local and international damning reports by respected rights bodies and others including Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity International, Intersociety, UK Inter-Parliamentary Committee on International Religious Freedom, International Committee on Nigeria and respected others.

Sadly and shockingly, these reports have holistically 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 triable evidence clearly defined and known to written criminal laws in 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 also gone against all known constitutional rights provisions on arrested and detained persons by detaining them arbitrarily without fair and proper trials.

It is also to the extent that the Buhari Government has recklessly resorted to indiscriminate use of ‘hate profiling and prosecutorial vindictiveness’ which clearly amount to persecution of arrested and unprocessed and untried citizens on the grounds of their ethnicity or tribe and faith or religion.

Finally, Intersociety is strongly calling on all victims of horrendous State Crimes in Nigeria under Buhari to buckle up for the nearing JUDGMENT DAY.

This is considering the fact that JUDGMENT DAY is drawing closer when all perpetrators of horrendous State crimes in Nigeria especially since 2015 will be called upon to account for conduct atrocities perpetrated.

It is the solemn and conscientious duty of leading and respected local and international human rights groups and activist lawyers to rise up strongly in 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 or directly filing compensatory and punitive lawsuits locally and internationally so as to get adequate compensations for the victims and behind the bar punishments against those responsible for the perpetrators and perpetuators 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 are expressly admissible, jurisdictional and triable.

This is chiefly because none of them has been properly investigated and remedied within the framework of domestic judicial process by relevant authorities in the country; thereby making their perpetrators and sponsors to elusively 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

Intersociety Contacts:
Mobile Line/Whatsapp: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org

https://intersociety-ng. org