Amnesty’s report: S’East Senators call for probe of military’s massacre of Igbo youths
Echoes of the gory details contained in the report of Amnesty International of about 150 defenceless pro-Biafran youths allegedly massacred in one year, reverberated in the Senate on Thursday, with the South-East Caucus, calling for immediate probe.
The AI report had posted details of wanton and pre-meditated killings of the youths by “trigger-happy” military operatives, who opened fire on the youths of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), whose leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has been in detention since October, last year.
Urging the Federal Government to urgently institute a judicial commission of inquiry on the matter, Senators from the South East, in a statement issued by its Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in Abuja, said the Amnesty International report, which painted a very chilling picture of the brutal killing of peaceful protesters allegedly by the Nigerian Army is not only embarrassing to Nigeria as a country, but one that casts doubts on the operational modus of the Nigeria military in handling civil protest in a constitutional democracy.
Abaribe said the caucus resolved that the reported killings must be investigated and those found culpable made to face the law.
The statement added: “It is not enough for the Nigeria military to debunk the report, we as a caucus demand an independent inquiry in the mode of a judicial panel and urgently too. It is our candid view that such panel would reassure the Igbo that the Federal Government is alive to its responsibilities one of which is the protection and respect of the fundamental rights of all people irrespective of tribe or religion.
“Unraveling the authenticity of the report would help to prevent a reoccurrence just as it will engender unity in our country. But the most important to us now is that the report must be probed and those implicated must be made to face justice.”
The AI report had posted details of wanton and pre-meditated killings of the youths by “trigger-happy” military operatives, who opened fire on the youths of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), whose leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has been in detention since October, last year.
Urging the Federal Government to urgently institute a judicial commission of inquiry on the matter, Senators from the South East, in a statement issued by its Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in Abuja, said the Amnesty International report, which painted a very chilling picture of the brutal killing of peaceful protesters allegedly by the Nigerian Army is not only embarrassing to Nigeria as a country, but one that casts doubts on the operational modus of the Nigeria military in handling civil protest in a constitutional democracy.
Abaribe said the caucus resolved that the reported killings must be investigated and those found culpable made to face the law.
The statement added: “It is not enough for the Nigeria military to debunk the report, we as a caucus demand an independent inquiry in the mode of a judicial panel and urgently too. It is our candid view that such panel would reassure the Igbo that the Federal Government is alive to its responsibilities one of which is the protection and respect of the fundamental rights of all people irrespective of tribe or religion.
“Unraveling the authenticity of the report would help to prevent a reoccurrence just as it will engender unity in our country. But the most important to us now is that the report must be probed and those implicated must be made to face justice.”
