The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said that the recent invitation of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari to the Hague to present a keynote address to the International Criminal Court, ICC, was done in bad faith.
IPOB, in a press release signed by its media and publicity secretary, Mr Emma powerful, and made available to DAILY POST in Awka, stated that the refusal of the federal government, led by Buhari to release the duo of Shiite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky and former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd), despite court orders disqualifies Buhari from such engagement.
It maintained that with the invitation to President Buhari, not minding his alleged penchant for flaunting or ignoring court orders, the current leadership of the International Criminal Court(ICC), which is mostly Africans, may lose the chance of providing another Africans in future.
Part of the statement read; “We condemn in the strongest possible terms, the statement credited to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Alhaji Abubakar Mallami over the refusal of this Buhari’ administration to obey multiple court orders to release both Sheikh El-Zakzaky and former National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki from extra judicial detention.
“The most recent ruling by Hon. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court Abuja admitting Dasuki on bail has once again been ignored, so has numerous pronouncements by the courts to set Sheikh El-Zakzaky free. This flagrant disobedience of the rule of law is not only shameful but also an impeachable offence.
“Coming at the heels of Buhari’s lecture at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on the virtues of rule of law and the commitment of his government to adhere to court orders, it is hypocritical and criminal for the those that invited Buhari to address them at the Hague conference to keep silent as rule of law is being destroyed in Nigeria.”
IPOB said the President of the ICC, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji and African Chief Prosecutor of the court, Madame Fatou Bensouda, both of whom are blacks, should cover their faces in shame for inviting a man they knew does not obey the law to address them on the need for a government to adhere to the rule of law.
It said further, “Should Africans be overlooked in the future for such sensitive appointments such as the ICC President or Chief Prosecutor, Africans should not complain of racism because such sensitive offices should be reserved for not only brilliant legal minds but also those who cannot be swayed by sentimental or material considerations.
“Inviting Buhari to address the ICC when he has steadfastly refused to obey the law when it comes to Col. Dasuki, Sheikh El-Zakzaky and many IPOB detainees is the greatest mistake the court has ever made.
“It doesn’t speak well of the diplomatic community in Nigeria either, especially Britain, the colonial master and creator, to maintain a deafening silence in the face of unbridled tyranny. If Britain can offer its public opinion on the probity or lack of, in the conduct of elections in Ekiti State, surely it has a moral obligation to admonish the ‘Buhari’ government on its refusal to obey the law.”
IPOB stressed that anywhere on earth the government is seen to be above the law, such society ceases to be regarded as democratic.
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