(Intersociety & SBCHROs, Onitsha Nigeria: 22nd
February 2017)-The leaderships of International Society for Civil Liberties
& the Rule of Law (Intersociety) and the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs) are
deeply concerned over the un-repentant and remorseless bad conducts of some
senior public office holders under the present Buhari Administration in
Nigeria. Of particular concerns are highly despicable and condemnable
dispositions of the Nigerian Army headed by Lt Gen Turkur Yusuf Buratai and his
sub commanders as well as the image and public information handlers of the
present central Government of Nigeria including the Information Minister,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Presidential Spokespersons.
Today, being 22nd
February 2017 marks 630 days since the Buhari Administration came on board and
took charge of the Nigerian Presidency (29th May 2015) and of these
630 days, a total of not less than 315 presidential lies or falsehoods have
been officially dished out and told; on average of two presidential falsehoods
or lies in every two days (credit: Intersociety 2017). The lies or falsehoods
under reference are barefaced or brazenly told even when caught in the act or
contradicted with substantial and sufficient provable pieces of evidence.
The presidential
lies or falsehoods of the Buhari Administration have also since late May 2015
defied preponderance of material or physical and mental evidence or such
expressly capable of being proven beyond reasonable doubt. It is also on record
that the Buhari Administration has never admitted any policy or conduct wrong
doing since its inception on 29th May 2015. Even when empirical
findings are irrefutably made by leading and reputable international
organizations and research institutions, such findings will still be emptily
denied by the Buhari Administration. The Buhari Administration is also very
notorious in mangling, spinning and suppressing circumstantially unassailable
facts and figures.
This advocacy
position of ours is sequel to intensification of presidential falsehoods by the
referenced senior public office holders in the past few days. The two most
shocking and disturbing of ongoing falsehood intensification policy of the
Buhari Administration are the statement made in Abuja on Tuesday by the
Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the recent barefaced and provocative lies contained in
the press statement of the 6th Division of the Nigerian Army in Port
Harcourt, Rivers State, which was signed by one Col Aminu IIiyasu.
The said 6th
Division of the Nigerian Army had in its statement of 19th February
2017 lied unpardonably, saying that “no single soul was shot and killed and no
single shot was fired by the Army and its sister security agencies” during the
Pro Trump Rally organized in Port Harcourt on 20th January 2017 by
IPOB led Pro Biafra Campaigners . Also, this time around, the Nigerian Army
seems to have modified or changed its usual lies of “the Pro Biafra Campaigners
arming themselves with automatic weapons and attacking security forces”, to
“Pro Biafra Campaigners throwing stones at the Nigerian Army and other security
forces at Pro Trump Rally”.
The Information
Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on his part, had yesterday being 21st
February 2017, described the news and verifiable information of the killing and
injuring of scores of unarmed and defenceless Pro Biafra Campaigners at Pro
Trump Rally in Port Court, Rivers State as “disinformation and fake news, worst
than insurgency”.
Alhaji Lai
Mohammed spoke at the Seventh Edition of the National Security Seminar
organized by the National Defence College of Nigeria, the Office of the
National Security Adviser and the Alumni of the National Defence College. Both
the 6th Division of the Nigerian Army and the Minister of
Information claimed falsely and wickedly that pictures and videos of the Port
Harcourt Pro Trump Rally mass shooting and killing are fake videos and pictures
from “old archives”.
We make bold to
say that the panicky and intensified presidential falsehood must have been a
fallout of the recent Trump-Buhari diplomatic call drama and blunder, said to
have taken place in London UK. Possibly the Trump aides at White House had
raised a concern and contempt over the killing of unarmed and defences citizens
who gathered in solidarity with the new Trump Government; to their Nigerian
counterparts in the course of negotiating or arranging for the said
Trump-Buhari diplomatic call drama and blunder; forcing the Buhari
Administration to “deny same before them” as usual with a firm promise to initiate
a country-wide and international rebuttal as we had seen in the past few days.
This is more so when it took the Army and the Presidency the whole of 31 days
to issue a statement of fake denial in the shooting and killing that took place
since 20th January 2017.
As a matter of
fact, the gloomy diplomatic and circumstances trailing the Trump-Buhari call
solely forced Nigerians including Intersociety to cast a serious doubt over the
reality and efficacy of the said sketchy diplomatic call. Till date,
controversies so generated have remained unresolved. Such unresolved
controversies include whether it was actually President Muhammadu Buhari or a
hired third party that received and responded to the said Trump call. There is
also gross misrepresentation of facts in the Trump statement as contained in
the Nigerian Presidency’s side of the statement; when the two are elementarily compared.
Another part of the controversies is the choice, timing and location of the
said diplomatic call. The question as to whether President Muhammadu Buhari can
coherently memorize, talk, hear or be heard till date has remained unanswered
by the Presidency as well.
On the false
claims by the Presidency and the Nigerian Army that “no single soul was shot
and killed and no single shot fired” at Pro Biafra Campaigners at the Port
Harcourt Pro Trump Rally of 20th January 2017; we are not surprised
at an Administration that has revolutionalized and institutionalized lies and
falsehoods and made them to go scientific and across borders. We make bold to say
again that 15-20 unarmed and defenceless Pro Biafra Campaigners or more were
killed with scores of others shot and critically injured at the Pro Trump Rally
on 20th January 2017. Most of the shootings and killings were
carried out by the Nigerian Army.
Out of scores of
injuries so sustained, there are empirical records of 37 persons that sustained
various degrees of gunshot wounds or injuries while at least ten others were
attacked and injured with sharp edges of guns or gun butts. As it has been the
murderous tradition of the Nigerian Army, over 13 of the dead bodies of Pro
Biafra Campaigners were taken away by security forces including the Police with
many of them picked and criminally taken away by soldiers in their military
vans.
We are therefore
not surprised at the fake denials made by the Nigerian Army and the Presidency.
The authorities concerned must have thought and concluded that having recovered
and taken away the bodies of the slain Pro Biafra Campaigners, there are no
more traces indicating that they shot and killed scores of them at Pro Trump
Rally.
Unknown to them,
some bodies of the slain activists were courageously saved and recovered by the
leadership of IPOB and their supporters alongside scores of others shot and
wounded. The recovered bodies and the wounded were saved and hospitalized with
their families fully traced and contacted.
Dead Victims: For
the avoidance of doubt and to the shame of the Presidency and the Nigerian Army
and its 6th Division; the following are names of three out of 15-20
Pro Biafra Campaigners shot and killed by the Nigerian Army at the Port
Harcourt Pro Trump Rally on 20th January 2017; whose bodies were
recovered: (1) Uwakwe Justus Ikechi. He hailed from Ikenga-Eziudo in
Ezinihite-Mbaise LGA of Imo State and was buried on 16th February
2017. (2) Ndubueze Johnson Okoli. He was 20yrs before he was killed and hailed
from Ihie Village in Owere Ezukala, Orumba South LGA, Anambra State. He was
buried on 3rd February 2017. (3) Kenneth Mathew. He hailed from Akwa
Ibom State and his corpse is still lying in a Port Court mortuary. Two other
recovered bodies of the slain activists are still lying at the UPTH mortuary.
Of over 13 other slain Pro Biafra activists whose bodies were criminally picked and taken away by soldiers
in different parts of Port Harcourt on 20th January 2017, one dead
body was picked at GRA/Mummy Broad and two along Ada George Road and by Garrison
area, while seven others were picked around Okporo Road. Out of four slain
Pro Biafra Campaigners deposited by IPOB and its supporters at the University
of Port Court Teaching Hospital (UPTH), two have been transferred and buried,
while two others are still there and placed under tight security. The corpse
of Citizen Kenneth Mathew from Akwa Ibom State deposited in another mortuary
is yet to be buried.
Shot And
Critically Injured Activists: Names and contacts of some of those injured in the
Pro Trump Rally on 20th January 2017, numbering 30 are: (1) Udo Effiong
Asukuah – 08160108853; stabbed by a soldier with dagger and gun butts in his
hand and stomach. (2) Mrs Ojeanya – 08039487398; a soldier used the sharp
edge of his gun to inflict a deep cut at her back. (3) Wisdom Ugochukwu Agor
– 08105894254; shot in his leg by a soldier and matched with boot on his
stomach. He also had his head broken with a stone thrown at him by a SARS
operative. (4) Mrs Sandra Nwachukwu – 08134060786; hit with a plank in her
eye, jaw and rips by soldiers. She can only see with one eye presently. Her
picture is attached below. (6) Tizath Brownson Israel – 07055067265;
terminally injured by soldiers in his legs and hands while trying to escape
via a high perimeter fence. (6) Gideon Bassey – 08187435187; hit in his knee
with gun butts by SARS operatives.
(7) Dr. Chinyere Sunday – 07036141652; matched on her knee by soldiers
using their boots resulting in serious dislocation. (8) Bassey Ben –
08032727547; sustained a knee injury when trying to escape from soldiers
pursuing him by jumping over a gutter. (9) Friday Nsoro – 09034298923; hit on
his knee by soldiers using gut butts. (10)Ibemera Ugonma – 07068561700;
soldiers hit her with guns very close to her breast. (11)Sammuel Orji –
09074690063; shot in his buttocks by a SARS operative with fired bullets
piercing his laps. (12) Chikaodinaka Obasi – 08038860966; hit and shot by
soldiers in his waist and heads using gun butts. (13) Magboh Nkeiruka-
09026117666; shot and brutalized by soldiers. (14) Okoye Sunday Collins-
07035852787; shot and brutalized by soldiers.
(15) Stanley Okechukwu-08064808692; shot and brutalized by soldiers.
(16) Oforegbu Victoria-08087107605; brutalized by soldiers and sustained
injury in her hands. (17) Martin Anochirim; 0803843868; shot and brutalized by
soldiers. (18)Emmanuel Chikwe- 0806891915; shot and brutalized by soldiers.
(19) Daniel Friday Ukeh-08069091629; his leg was hit and broken by soldiers.
(20) Odinakachi Chinyere Ekeh (27yrs) - 08181787328; his leg was hit with gun
butts and broken by soldiers. (21) Peter Etim Ebe; 08170128483; pushed and
thrown off the bridge by soldiers. He felled and sustained broken legs. (22)
Arinze Ujobundu-08030972081; hit and injured in his neck and hands by
soldiers.
(23) Uko Herald- 07033092543, 0909331037; hit on his face by soldiers.
(24) Ifeanyichukwu Benson-07067535083; shot in his laps and crippled by
soldiers. (25) Kingsley Ahamuefula- 08063227052; shot and hit in his waist by
soldiers. Others shot and wounded during the Port Harcourt Pro Trump Rally
are (26) Ifeanyichukwu Okoli from Imo State, (27) Uchenna Ajogu- 08132421712
from Enugu State, (28) Ugwuagbo Emmanuel- 08063313700 from Enugu State, (29)
Emmanuel Ike 09021340517 from Imo State; shot by the police and had the fired
bullets bursting his spinal cord; and (30) Odinakachi Chinyere- 08181787328;
sustained bruises and cuts in her legs with ankle dislocation as a result of
severe beatings she received from soldiers.
As the Presidency and its Army are shamelessly busy intensifying their
falsehoods, the authorities of Amnesty International, UK, has just yesterday,
21st February 2017 released its latest 2016/7 Special Report in
which it stated that “over 177 unarmed and nonviolent Pro Biafra Campaigners
were killed between January and May 2016 in the Southeast Nigeria and the
involvement of soldiers escalated the extra judicial and other unlawful
killings”. The AI Special Report may most likely have excluded the 2nd
December 2015 and 17th December 2015 similar killings in Onitsha
in which not less than 30 unarmed Pro Biafra Campaigners were killed
including dumping of three of those they killed at Onitsha General Hospital
mortuary on 21st December 2015. The Special Report of AI also may
most likely have excluded the Pro Trump Rally killings under reference,
resulting in not less than 15 deaths.
Nigerians should expect more disclosures in coming weeks all geared
towards shaming and taming the ravaging, menacing, rampaging and riotous
presidential falsehoods and lies in Nigeria.
Attached below are the following pictures: (1) funeral poster of
Uwakwe Justus Ikech, (2) lifeless body of Ndubueze Johnson Okoli and his
funeral poster, (3) lifeless body of Kenneth Mathew; and (4) Mrs Sandra
Nwachukwu (inflicted with bruises leading to loss of one of her eyes).
|
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties &
the Rule of Law (Intersociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
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