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.”
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