Biafra: US Based Group Asks Buhari To Withdraw Troops From South-east Now

Thursday 12 October 2017 // 03:26 PM

Biafra: US Based Group Asks Buhari To Withdraw Troops From South-east Now

Rapid Response Fact-Finding Mission (RRFFM), a United States of America based human rights group has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately withdraw troops from the south-east geopolitical zone.

According to Vanguard, the group in a press release queried the necessity of sending military men in a region that is so peaceful. The group asked Buhari to redeploy the soldiers to Northeast where Bokoharam killed four US soldiers in Nigerian border last week.

It was also reported that the call followed a field investigation carried out by the group in Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State.

According to the group, the governors of the region denied knowledge of Army exercise codenamed ‘Operation Python Dance II’. Meaning that Buhari sent the army to south-east without the approval of the state governments.

Emmanuel Ogebe, the Special Counsel Justice for Jos Project, a US/Nigeria Law Group in Washington DC seeking to end impunity in the Nigerian Genocide on Monday stated that members of the team were drawn from US and United Kingdom.

In a press statement, the group made the following recommendations after a forensic investigation in the south-east region of the county:

“The President of Nigeria should stand down the troops in the southeast till their mission scope is clearly defined and clarified and necessary legal benchmarks for deployment are met or better still redeploy them to northern Nigeria where on the Niger side of the border terrorists suspected to be Boko Haram killed 4 American troops last week.

“The President should consult the state governors as chief security officers of their states on the necessity or lack thereof of military deployment

“The military should apologize to and return the seized phone of a journalist “The army should desist from further acts of aggression, intimidation and rights abuses of civilians including continuing attacks on the already destroyed home of Afara Chief Kanu

“The army should identify for court martial its personnel who ransacked and manhandled innocent journalists in their press centre.

“The army should disclose the true casualties of its operations and provide compensation to the victims while arraigning the perpetrators

“The government of Nigeria should allow the trial of IPOB leader Kanu to continue under the established framework of the legal system instead brute military force. Failure to do so could force the further metastization into yet another insurgency which Nigeria simply cannot afford on an eastern flank

“The government should as a matter of urgency provide treatment and compensation to the victims and families in a confidential manner that does not expose them to terrorist-labelling

“The government should close the “governance gap” exemplified by infrastructure deficits at local levels that are deep drivers of discontentment and frustration in an ordinarily industrious and entrepreneurial populace.

"The international community and the Nigerian government should investigate the human rights abuses to ensure justice is done especially as the 50th memorial of the Asaba massacres is marked for which no perpetrators have been brought to book half a century after.

“The government should revisit the National Conference report that has encapsulated a lot of the institutional injustices that undermine equity and FairPlay in the Nigerian contraption

“The International Criminal Court should look into the military abuses in the southeast as part of its ongoing preliminary examination into Nigeria’s security forces.” In a similar vein, the group’s also findings implicated the Nigerian Army in the “unprovoked” attack on Journalists in Umuahia amongst others.

“In its interim report and observations, the RRFFM finds as a fact: “Personnel of the Nigerian army attacked and molested members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists during an unprovoked invasion of the journalists’ press centre, destroying and confiscating journalistic equipment in September

“The Nigerian Army attacked and destroyed the home of a Chief in Amara, Umuahia who is the father of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu who lived with him also in September

“Several people were killed in Umuahia and several neighbourhood homes and properties affected “Nigerian security forces engaged in reprisal attacks in Aba after IPOB members overran a military checkpoint “Several people were killed and maimed in Aba

“Suspected IPOB members stopped and searched vehicles for reprisal attacks on northerners as well as targeted house searches “Good Samaritans and the army helped hide and evacuate innocent targets including incidentally a citizen of Niger who has since fled to his own country.

“The military was not invited in by the eastern state governments and indeed the governors were already in dialogue with the separatists on their concerns “While the military presence has been scaled back from the streets and relative normalcy has been restored, the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu remains a mystery

“There appears to be a serious lack of transparency or sincerity by the army on its true mission to the southeast, casualties of its operations to the public and even to the state governments

“Suspected members of IPOB burnt a police station and attacked a mosque UPDATE “RRFFM has just received credible photos and footage of another raid on the home of Nnamdi Kanu’s family in Umuahia captured on CCTV yesterday Sunday, October 8, 2017."

From the above press release, Buratai and his killer squad will not escape justice. Both south-east governors who are denying that army didn't inform them before the operation was carried out will also face Lady justice no matter the day, time and circumstances.

Chinedu Solomon

For IPOB Writers