BREAKING NEWS: US COURT OKAYS TRIAL OF BURATAI, 13 OTHERS OVER VIOLENT SUPPRESSION OF PRO-BIAFRA PROTESTS

​BREAKING NEWS: US COURT OKAYS TRIAL OF BURATAI, 13 OTHERS OVER VIOLENT SUPPRESSION OF PRO-BIAFRA PROTESTS -


The United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered an order authorising 10 Biafran Plaintiffs to sue 14 Nigerian Defendants for alleged complicity in the 2016 torture and extrajudicial killings under color of Nigerian law to retaliate for peaceful Biafran protests against ethnic or religious oppression. Though the order was given on June 2, 2017, News Express learnt of it on Saturday night when it received a copy of a statement issued in Washington, D.C, by the litigants.

The statement, dated June 8, 2017, said that the next step in the litigation is to serve the Torture Victims Protection Act and Alien Tort Claims Act Complaint on the Nigerian Defendants.

The Biafran Plaintiffs are seeking millions of dollars of damages to compensate for their grievous losses and suffering. The case name is John Doe, et al v. Tukur Yusuf Buratai et al, United States District Court for the District of Columbia Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-01033. It has been assigned to United States District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton.

The District Court’s Order noted: “Each Nigerian Defendant allegedly committed crimes against humanity and, as regards each of the Decedents, extrajudicial killings actionable under the Alien Torts Act and Torture Victims Protection Act. The Complaint alleges that Defendants’ sole or substantial motivating force behind the extrajudicial murders and torture…was the ethnicity, religious and political beliefs of the victims which match those of each Plaintiff, i.e., Igbo ethnicity, Christian faith, and support of Biafran independence through peaceful means.”

The District Court added that the “Plaintiffs’ allege that identifying Plaintiffs or Decedents would expose them, their families, and relatives to an intolerable risk of death or serious bodily injury at the hands of Defendants or the Government of Nigeria.”

Attorney Bruce Fein, of Fein & DelValle PLLC, who represents the Plaintiffs with his partner W. Bruce DelValle, explained:

“This landmark lawsuit is about justice and the rule of law coming to rescue Igbos, Biafrans and their political supporters who are persecuted because of their Christian religion, their ethnicity and their political viewpoints since Nigeria’s independence from its colonial master Great Britain in October 1960. Nigeria’s decolonization violated the1960 United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples. Paragraph 2 declares, ’All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.’ Great Britain never allowed Biafrans to ‘freely determine their political status‘through a plebiscite or otherwise.

That stands in stark contrast to the self-determination vote Great Britain afforded the Scots in 2014. Biafrans are decidedly more distinct from other Nigerians in matters of democratic culture, history, religion, language and ethnicity than the Scots are from the English. The time to remedy the flagrant decolonization injustice to Biafrans throughout peaceful means is long overdue.”

The evil plot and vision of the southeast politicians

The evil plot and vision of the southeast politicians

 

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has disclosed that politicians, who were initially calling pro-Biafra activists names, are now mounting pressure on him to support their political aspirations.
He stated this at the weekend while addressing few of his friends in the media who paid him a visit at his Afaraukwu residence in Umuahia, Abia State.
Kanu averred that those who are distancing themselves from the Biafra struggle would regret it as they would end up being irrelevant “because the Biafra Republic is sure”.

He further disclosed that he took over the agitation for the actualization of Biafra state because of the failings of erstwhile leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Ralph Uwazururike.
His words: “The same politicians who called us noise makers, internet warriors, miscreants and so many names today sneak in here to come and lobby for my support.

“They will always ask me to support them to get into office, that while they are in office, they will help push the cause, but I know that what they are after is the four or eight years they will stay so that they can make money.
“For me, money is not my problem. They have been calling me to come to Abuja, come to so place, but the money is not my interest. For me, it is about Biafra.

 
The IPOB leader noted that the fears being entertained by politicians about the coming of Biafra republic were neither here nor there, assuring that the Biafra republic would be founded on the principle of justice, equity and fairness.
He said: “I don’t know why they are just afraid. Biafra will be a home for all people who agree with our values.
“If you are from Sokoto you can be a Biafran if you believe in our value system of equity, justice and fairness.
“I don’t even intend to be the head of Biafra republic in the end. I don’t like to always lead. I want to be led so that I can proffer solutions.
“If Uwazuruike had done well, I won’t be doing what I’m doing today. I’m into this struggle because of leadership vacuum.
“I’m into this fight because my people are suffering; they are denied of their rights and privileges. Nothing will stop this fight. And I must assure you we are almost there. Biafra is almost here with us.”

On whether he agreed with the assertion of the late Igbo leader, Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu, that Biafra should now be a thing of the mind and not a geographical space, Kanu stated that Biafra had a geographical location and that the people of Biafra were known and defined.

Three month quit notice LETTER TO AREWA YOUTHS!! By Obafemi Gbenga

LETTER TO AREWA YOUTHS!! By Obafemi Gbenga

Before five years of taking over those Igbo houses and businesses the Northerners will go broke and sell it to same Igbos when they come in with visas.....
They give you any Igbo man's hotel, you will either close down within 2 years or still sell back to foreign Igbo men since none of Northern people can buy such houses.

Igbos are created to start with nothing and become rich and landlords within years, they will all leave empty handed and come back to your cursed land, pay your house rent and shop rent and begin with little cash,within years your Igbo tenant becomes your landlord by buying the same yard from you and even buy your parents graves for packing space while you pack to one room in a ghetto of brown old roofs.

Buhari is the problem of this Nation, Buhari has been a former head of state. Upon his election, instead of him to play a fatherly role and first unite all Nigerians behind him , he started alienating people and talking about 97/ 5 %. He is the most divisive leader in Nigeria since 1960.

He should accept full responsibility for any sad eventuality. We are in a digital age of social media. Remember the Arab spring. It is easier to mobilise a million people today using social media. If truth be told, it seems the north will soon find out nobody wants to associate with them.
I think their cup is now full and about to overflow.

I don't think any sensible people will want to associate with a region that has nothing good or worthwhile to bring to the table except flooding every town and cities with arrogant amputees, beggars, lepers, vagrants, touts, vagabonds, jihadist murderers and grotesquely deformed humanoids. The entire north is populated  by warped beings that look like humans but are not!!!!

Biafra: Nnamdi Kanu And The Proponents Of Heroism

Biafra: Nnamdi Kanu And The Proponents Of Heroism

June 8, 2017
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Ever since the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, staged a heroic walk out of the four walls of Kuje Prison, the venomous attacks of his critics, some of whom never believed he would one day break free from detention, soared higher.

Many have been said and written about the conduct of the IPOB leader. While some are relieved that at last he has regained freedom in spite of the harsh conditions behind his bail, others have devised many means to slander his name in a desperate bid to pin him down in a wrongdoing.

Pundits have argued that “whether we like it or not, we have made Nnamdi Kanu into a substance, from being a mere agitator in the shadows. He no longer is a poison-free serpent lurking in the hedges of Nigerian unity. His neck sprouts out, his tongue forked, venom drips. He has become more than a shadow of a titan, if not a budding one. It was not his doing”.

Read Also: Biafra: Your Apology Means Nothing To Us, Keep The Cake And Give Us Biafra--IPOB Fires Back At Obasanjo

But however it is, the Nigerian government had no right to subvert his rights in the pursuit of the purity of right in the country. Nnamdi Kanu is undoubtedly a hero who became more pronounced by undermining a straightforward adherence to the common laws of the land Nigeria operates on.
So could it be that there was a deliberate plot to defame and inter-switch him to a villain that we now see many hawks each blessed week pouring out their misconceived utterances against him, even after proving a couple of times that he can be liable and trustworthy?

Some began by flying the evil kite that Kanu has violated the stringent bail conditions handed to him by the High Court judge in granting interviews and organizing a successful sit-at-home exercise, demanding that his bail be revoked. Others claim to have invented that he now seeks for a position and integration into the murky waters of the Nigerian political space, hence has abandoned the Biafra project. While others fabricated that he collected a cash gift of 50 million dollars and two Sport Utility Vehicles, SUVs, from the gubernatorial candidate and Governor of Anambra state, Willie Obiano.

In all this, a discerning mind can rightly detect a foul play and evil machinations of the enemies and detractors aimed at whittling down the influences of the Biafra leader cum hero whom everyone have come to realize that he does not only do what he preaches, he preaches what he does.
In effect, people have realized that all these venomous punches thrown at the IPOB leader Kanu, is just one of the cycle a true and confirmed hero had to undergo to prove his mettle beyond every reasonable doubt that he is indeed a hero who has captured the attention of the world by merely demanding for the independence and liberation of his nation and the Biafrans people.

Read Also: Biafra: The Success Of IPOB's Sit-At-Home And The Shame Of Uwazuruike

It is not so easy, especially in Nigeria, to become a hero without passing through the enormous challenges and vituperation of the enemies who never envisaged that situation of things changes for those who have sacrificed their lives in perfecting that change. Similarly, Kanu has had his own share for daring fearlessly to challenge the status quo and the powers that be in the Nigerian political enclave. 

The quest for freedom is no longer a hidden agenda meant to serve the interest of few individuals or groups, but a concerted effort towards ensuring that those in bondage, at best, are liberated from the shackles of alien invasion and forceful occupation of their natural homes of which Kanu and his IPOB, has taken a centre stage in bringing the aspirations of the people in the defunct Eastern region to limelight.

Many punches and propaganda are still going to be thrown to weaken the gullible minds of the people against the unwavering resolution and determination of the IPOB leader in the restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth, but it will only take the courageous few and discerning minds to decipher which is true and which is a mere fabrication targeted at slandering the image of the Biafra leader.

Read Also: Biafra: We Are Ready To Do More Than "Sit-At-Home" To Restore Biafra

Nnamdi Kanu appears not to be insulated from the vitriolic or rather, the acerbic tongues of his detractors, he understands that he will surely arrive at this stage in time but someone who embodies clear conscience, fears no accusation or evil punches of the enemies as that will only make him to soar higher than expected. Through their actions, they have already made him a hero behind the walls of prison, and now we only see another effort in entrenching the tenets of heroism in him, outside the walls of the prison. Let the countdown begin.

By Chukwuemeka Chimerue

Why Nnamdi Kanu’s Bail Remains Intact And The Emptiness Of Nigerian Army In Public Policing

*Why Nnamdi Kanu’s Bail Remains Intact And The Emptiness Of Nigerian Army In Public Policing

By Intersociety - June 5, 2017

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra pictured in the court
The leadership of Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, Intersociety, is not surprised at the negative reactions of the federal government led by General Muhammadu Buhari and its Nigerian Army as well as some unfriendly media practitioners sympathetic to the present federal government and its suppressive and annihilative policies against the Igbo Ethnic Nationality in Nigeria.

The unfolding negative reactions of the referenced are clearly borne out of huge successes that followed the May 30, 2017 sit-at-home protest organized by the leaderships of IPOB and MASSOB, which recorded 95% success in the targeted areas and cities in Igbo Land and other Igbo populated and business areas in Nigeria.
We make bold to say that the negative reactions are not unexpected and clearly borne of frustrations, humiliations, surprises and shocks received by the unrepentant ethno-religious cleansers; forcing them to deploy all arsenal they think they have so as to register their frustrations and humiliations. Since the end of the hugely successful sit-at-home protest, we have been following the referenced negative reactions with no iota of surprise.

While the media branch of the named sworn Igbo enemies have heightened a smear and inciting campaign, claiming that “Citizen Nnamdi Kanu has flouted his bail conditions and should be re-arrested and sent back to prisons”, the military branch of the referenced sworn Igbo enemies, represented by the Nigerian Army, has gone gaga and uncontrollable telling the whole world how “it escaped IPOB and MASSOB’s ambush” and how “IPOB and MASSOB and their int’l collaborators have transformed into armed militias”.

Totality of these is not unexpected of a set of genocidal people kitted and armed with lethal weapons and chronically commissioned to slaughter at any slightest opportunity members of Igbo Ethnic Nationality in furtherance of their decades’ long genocidal and annihilative policies. Which explains why despite killing over 3.5million innocent and defenseless Igbo citizens since 1945, they are yet undone and always in the look for bloods of Igbo people in Nigeria or any part thereof.

The truth of the matter leading to the present litany of frustrations and negative reactions by the referenced, strictly lies on two successes recorded in the all important sit-at-home protest: (a) successful and masterful change of protest strategy; from open street protest prone to mass murder by Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, SSS, Navy and Police SARS, etc, to sit-at-home or ghost street protest; and (b) huge compliance or approval voluntarily given by 95% of the urban Igbo people to the sit-at-home call by the leaderships of IPOB and reformed MASSOB.

Consequently, we at Intersociety make further bold to say that Citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s bail conditions are intact, inviolable and strictly adhered to. Those calling for his re-arrest or revocation of his bail conditions have failed woefully and shall continue to fail. The issue of bail conditions ordering a beneficiary citizen to quarantine himself/herself to indoor or cave and not be seen among a crowd exceeding ten citizens is not only a judicial disaster, but intensively and extensively unknown to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

No court order or judicial pronouncement releasing a detained citizen on bail can invalidate his or her constitutional right to freedom of association and assembly. Ordering Citizen Nnamdi Kanu “not to be found in a crowd numbering over ten persons” expressly means that he cannot worship or be found in the midst of his lawyers, siblings, his father’s palace, among his father’s cabinet chiefs, with his wife and his in-laws, in sporting arena, inside a plane or public vehicular transport, in a motor park, in a meeting of his kinsmen, peer group and social and political associates, etc.

By Section 1 (3) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, any pronouncement of the court in Nigeria that rises in conflict with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution is totally dead on arrival, particularly if such judicial pronouncement is made as ratio decidendi. Such unconstitutional ratio decidendi should not only be trounced but also expressly treated as orbita dictum or dicta. No court in Nigeria under the 1999 Constitution must issue an order undermining the 1999 Constitution particularly its justiciable rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.
As for recent ranting of the Nigerian Army, represented by its 82nd Division in Enugu, it is a clear case of pathological emptiness of Nigerian soldiers in modern soldiering and military science particularly as it concerns military-public relationship and policing of public assemblies in Nigeria.

The frustrations of the 82nd Division of the Nigerian Army and its satellite formations in the Southeast are clearly understandable.
Here is a supposed Army of multi ethno-religious composition of the Federation of Nigeria, but defiantly and lopsidedly composed and peopled presently by brigades and battalions of ethno-religious cleansers within the Hausa-Fulani Muslim stock. The 82nd Division of the Nigerian Army is utterly angry and frustrated because streets and roads in the Southeast that had last year’s 29th and 30th May provided same with an opportunity to shed and spill the bloods of over 140 innocent and defenseless Igbo citizens at Nkpor, Onitsha and Asaba; grossly disappointed and denied it of same violent opportunity on 30th of May 2017; leading to its present frustrations, humiliations, shocks and disappointment.

We had in September 2016, issued a public enlightenment advocacy statement in which we stated and pointed out clearly that the Nigerian Army is the most atrocious and barbarous military under any credible democratic country in Africa, South America and Asia, Europe and North America. It is also backwardly and illiterately composed and commanded.
In policing public assemblies including peaceful and even unlawful or violent assemblies in Nigeria or any part thereof, Nigerian Army has no iota of role or responsibility. The gross ignorance of the Nigerian Army in policing public assemblies in Nigeria other than armed rebellion, is further exposed when it claimed that “its violent crackdown of innocent and unarmed pro Biafra campaigners, and their nonviolent processions and street protests leading to over 270 deaths and 370 injuries in less than two years (August 2015-January 2017) is in line with military’s rules of engagement”.

Owing to its collective and administrative backwardness and illiteracy, the Nigerian Army is thousands of miles away from realizing the fact that rules of engagement under the UN System and int’l law such as int’l humanitarian law and the Laws of War or Conflicts, popularly called the Geneva Conventions of 1949; are strictly not applicable to policing public assemblies or non war civil assemblies; even if such assemblies turn violent other than armed rebellion. The Nigerian Army’s gross ignorance and illiteracy further darkens its eyes and sense of reasoning to the effect that rules of engagement is solely applicable in inter State or intra State conflicts or wars and that it was founded on three war doctrines of jus ad bellum, jus in bellum and jus post bellum. The word “bellum” literally means war or armed conflict.

These are the reason behind the Nigerian Army’s recent claims, as it has always done that “IPOB and MASSOB are violent and armed independent people of Biafra” and that “they and their int’l collaborators have transformed into armed militias”. The link to the said public enlightenment on policing public assemblies in Nigeria is here:

PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT ON POLICING PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES IN NIGERIA

We therefore call on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to ignore any frivolous petition from any quarter asking it to stampede Hon Justice Binta Nyako into revoking Citizen Kanu’s bail.

The Federal Ministry of Justice is also warned not to undermine the sacred provisions of the 1999 Constitution in the like manner. As we have always done successfully, we shall oppose with utter advocacy vehemence any attempt to unjustly revoke Citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s bail or return him to prison. The heightening surveillance around Citizen Kanu’s Afara-Umuahia Community and its environs as well as his movement by soldiers and SSS must be totally discontinued.

Hon Justice Binta Nyako must reverse herself when judicially approached by releasing the trio of Citizens Benjamin Madubugwu, Dave Nwawuisi and Chidiebere Onwudiwe on bail. The IPOB legal team is also advised to appeal the judicial decision of Hon Binta Nyako, refusing the trio bail and get them released on bail. As a matter of fact all the spurious charges preferred against Citizens Nnamdi Kanu, Dave Nwawuisi, Chidiebere Onwudiwe and Benjamin Madubugwu should be quashed or withdrawn and discontinued by the Federal Ministry of Justice.

The charges are not only spurious and uncalled for, but also a situation whereby no single member of Fulani terrorist group that has killed with automatic weapons over 4000 innocent and defenseless Nigerian citizens since the inception of the Buhari Administration in June 2015 has neither been arrested or prosecuted; amounts to killing, prosecuting and persecuting the innocent and law abiding and protecting and rewarding murderers and genocidists.

It is also shocking as why a citizen who possess a self-defensive non prohibited firearms in the category of Pump Action Guns with a valid license, which has since been tendered in court; will be held without trial or bail since two years whereas no single member of Fulani terrorist group has been arrested and put on trial for possession of prohibited firearms such as AK-47 assault rifles or sub or machine guns.
Finally, we call on the Akwa Ibom State Directorate of SSS to as a matter of uttermost immediacy comply with an Akwa Ibom Federal High Court judgment, ordering for unconditional release from its custody of Citizen Bright Chimezie (an IPOB chieftain), who was arrested since 16th September 2016 or a period of over eight months, in Uyo and detained under its custody without trial since then. If the directorate has murdered him in its custody through close range shooting or torture, the directorate is called upon to release his corpse publicly to IPOB, his lawyers and family.

Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist & Graduate of Security Studies)
Board Chairman
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org