Chukwumerije: Threat to Drag Ihejirika to ICC Affirms Northern Elders’ Support for Boko Haram

Senator Uche Chukwumerije, representing Abia South senatorial district in the National Assembly  Wednesday deplored the threat by the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) to drag the former Chief of Army Staff, General Onyeabor Ihejirika, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), over alleged human rights violations in Baga, Borno State, last year.

Briefing journalists at the National Assembly yesterday, Chukwumerije said the threat coming immediately after the exit of Ihejirika and other service chiefs, only revealed the sentiments of the elders for Boko Haram.

“Besides, the fact that Prof. Ango Abdullahi and others sprung into action immediately after Ihejirika and six others left their commands, has revealed the depth of long shouldering resentment of the campaign against Boko Haram by self-proclaimed leaders of the North. This raises a question about where their sympathy lies,” he said.

Chukwumerije, who said the threat was capable of unleashing ill-will on the federation, further described it as highly provocative to the sensibilities of all, who desire the unity and stability of Nigeria.

The senator, who said senseless sacrifice of human lives was indefensible by any standard, added that a society that had no respect for human life was only a little different from the community of animals, noting that the situation in which Ihejirika fought was a war against terrorism, counter-terrorism and guerilla-like conflicts.

While alleging that the motive of the elders was beyond the claims of human rights violations, he recalled how the Senate sent a delegation to investigate the violence in Baga and reported that there were only 37 cases of death as against the exaggerated 185 cases.

He raised three questions, viz: “One, why the blatantly selective search for responsibility in Baga and why so personal? Every citizen (including Prof. Ango Abdullahi) knows that the anti-terrorism campaign in the North is a joint military operation under the command of the Chief of Defence Staff. In singling out Lt. General Ihejirika, the then army boss, the likes of Abdullahi are merely betraying old prejudices and embarking on a new hazardous search for bad names to hang the hated dogs.

“Two, why single out Baga incident for Hague’s adjudication? We have seen, in the past, cases of wholesale massacres which were not only more gruesome than Baga’s but proven as true unlike Baga. Ango Abdullahi and co kept silent. There was the case of Odi in which a whole community was decimated. There was the case of Zaki-Biam. There was the case of Katsina Ala.

“Three, if Ango’s criterion for selection of cases for Hague is ‘gruesome use of force against unarmed civilians,’ ‘extra-judicial killings’ and ‘acts of strangulating civilians,’ unproven or exaggerated as the allegations may be), then our learned professor ought to know that the prime candidate is the genocidal atrocities of the civil war against the people of former Eastern Region, especially Ndigbo.”

Chukwumerije, therefore, concluded his briefing with the submission that by Northern elders’ threat which he described as biased, they had opened doors into the world court for not only the Ndigbo, but also the people of Odi, Zaki-Biam and Katsina Ala, saying they would all dust their files and head for Hague, The Netherland.

The senator also criticised the exclusion of the Igbo in recent appointments of service chiefs, saying the people of the South-east viewed the decision with concern as he alleged that the region had been excluded from the highest level of security considerations in the country.

But despite the wide criticisms that had followed the threat of the Northern elders, the body (NEF) yesterday  forged ahead with its plan by seeking the co-operation of Borno Elders’ Forum (BEF), which was excited with the plan to drag Ihejirika  and other military top brass to the ICC.

The NEF spokesperson,  Prof. Ango Abdullahi, told journalists at the end of a meeting in Abuja yesterday, that it would soon hold a parley with the BEF, which had been having its own discourse on the issue for sometime now.

The meeting, THISDAY gathered, was to receive the report of its committee on security and legal issues, comprising retired military brass of northern extraction such as the former General Officer Commanding 3 Division, Gen. Sale Maina, former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Alwali Kazir and former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Al-Amin Daggash.
Others are erstwhile Lagos State Police Commissioner, Abubakar Tsav and Mallam Kalle Al-Ghazali.

The committee deliberated on the review of the 1999 constitution, political developments in the country and the proposed national conference.

Before now, the NEF, led by its chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Maitam Sule had submitted a report on the spate of insecurity in the North to President Goodluck Jonathan in May last year. It was the second of such report that it said the federal government shelved and refused to act on.

Abdullahi, who also indicated that the NEF has been approached by the West African Human Rights Committee for partnership on their build up of a case of human rights violations by security agencies, said  there are sufficient evidence that will necessitate the group’s march to the ICC..

“There are enough gross violations of human rights in Nigeria, particularly in the North that would warrant going to the ICC. Of course, it is the ICC that will determine the pace it wants to go in prosecuting those brought before it base on its procedures and rules,” the former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria said.

On claim that the forum had to wait for Ihejirika to retire before deciding to take him on, Abdullahi said it is false. “We’ve been on it for sometime now. It is only coincidental that our efforts became intensified when he was relieved of his duty,” he explained, pointing out that the group is not dragging him before the ICC because he is an Ibo man.

“This line of thought is stupid. It could have been a Kanuri man or any other Nigerian from whatever tribe,” he said, insisting that “not many Nigerians are getting justice from the Nigerian legal system, which is why it is imperative to seek for justice elsewhere.”


Dismissing Ihejirika’s statement that  northern elders had failed to give kudos to the military for its feat in curbing insecurity in the North-east, Abdullahi said there no reason to applaud the army as they were doing what they signed up for. “He should have waited for total peace to be secures before he starts expecting appreciation. And, in any case, that would have come from historians who would take objective look at what happened and chronicle it,” he noted.