Biafra: American Court Okays Trial of Nigerian Army Chief Buratai, 13 Others Over Alleged Torture, Killing of Protesters

By Sundiata Post

ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The American District Court for the District of Columbia has given an order authorising 10 Biafran plaintiffs to sue 14 Nigerian defendants for alleged complicity in the 2016 torture and extrajudicial killings under colour of Nigerian law to retaliate for peaceful Biafran protests against ethnic or religious oppression. Though the order was given on June 2, 2017, Sundiata Post 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 former President​ Bill 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 decolonidation 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 decolonisation injustice to Biafrans through peaceful means is long overdue.”

According to a report released by Amnesty International Report on November 24, 2016, the Nigerian Military killed about 150 pro-Biafra protesters

 (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/11/peaceful-pro-biafra-activists-killed-in-chilling-crackdown/) .

According to the report, “The Nigerian security forces, led by the military, embarked on a chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and violence resulting in the deaths of at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters in the south east of the country, according to an investigation by Amnesty International published today (November 24, 2017).

“Analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and 146 eye witness testimonies relating to demonstrations and other gatherings between August 2015 and August 2016 consistently shows that the military fired live ammunition with little or no warning to disperse crowds. It also finds evidence of mass extrajudicial executions by security forces, including at least 60 people shot dead in the space of two days in connection with events to mark Biafra Remembrance Day.

“This deadly repression of pro-Biafra activists is further stoking tensions in the south east of Nigeria. This reckless and trigger-happy approach to crowd control has caused at least 150 deaths and we fear the actual total might be far higher,” said Makmid Kamara, Interim Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.

“The Nigerian government’s decision to send in the military to respond to pro-Biafra events seems to be in large part to blame for this excessive bloodshed. The authorities must immediately launch an impartial investigation and bring the perpetrators to book.”