It was reported earlier that Joseph Nwaegbu, a Senior Associate of Pathfind Attorneys who filed the petition before the ICC on behalf of Make Nigeria Better Initiative (MNBI), accused Falana of allegedly instigating the #EndSARS crisis that led to the deaths of many Nigerians.
Human rights
activist, Femi Falana has reacted to the lawsuit filed against him at the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
However in a
statement titled “LET THE GUILTY BE AFRAID”, Falana disclosed why he has been
vocal against oppression and brutality.
Citing a
report by a judicial commission of enquiry on the alleged killings of some
members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) by the Nigerian army in Kaduna
in December 2015, Falana stated that failure to rebuke such action emboldens
the perpetrators.
The Senior
Advocate who welcomed the petition against him, further stated that Mr. Joseph
Nwaegbu/Pathfind Attorneys/MNBI and their shadowy minders and paymasters think
that the ICC is a forum for frivolities,
The statement
read;
From December
12 -14 2015, a massacre of our compatriots took place in Kaduna. The group
targeted by the massacre has put the number at over 1000. The sheer scale of
the genocidal event is however imaginable to independent minds by a subsequent
disclosure, by the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government in an official
submission to a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the incident, of the secret
burial in mass graves of 347 of the victims.
According to
this official, 191 of the corpses, taken from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria,
were buried in a mass grave in Mando area of Kaduna State. The same fate befell
156 other corpses conveyed from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital,
Zaria. The offence of the victims? Well, no more than that they were members of
the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), adherents of the Shiite interpretation
of the religion of Islam, who in the course of a peaceful protest denied right
of way to a commander of the Nigerian Army.
I am not a
Shiite or a member of the IMN. But I am a human being and a Nigerian. Just like
the victims. I remembered the regrets of Martin Niemoller regarding the
do-nothing attitude of those who should have known better when the warning
signals of the darkness that eventually enveloped humanity under the jackboots
of the Nazis and their superior-race ideology began manifesting.
According to
Niemoller:
First they
came for the socialists and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist
Then they
came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out - because I was not a
unionist
Then they
came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew
Then they
came for me and there was no one left
To speak for
me
The event of
December 12, 2015 happened just a few months into the first term of our current
democratic rulers. As morning shows the day, events since then have shown it
was a precursor of things to come, as Martin Niemoller poignantly warned those
who would rather sit in their comfort zone and watch while evil stalks their
land because they are either the evil doers or are wallowing under a false
sense of assurance of their own position. I feared that unless we shouted and
called-out the perpetrators, they would be emboldened to match from Shiites to
non-shiites, to anyone who happens to hold a view different from the one they
cherish, or who dares look at their god-head with eyes other than that of
worship and devotion.
Martin
Niemoller was right, and I was right to follow his admonition by speaking out
loud, and taking up the cause of my fellow human beings and fellow citizens,
the victims of the genocide that took place in Kaduna. Kaduna has been followed
with several occurrence of similar nature in Abuja, the Federal Capital
Territory. Crocodiles have smiled while Python has danced, winced, cried, raged
and roared across the length and breathe of Nigeria, gobbling-up citizens who
dared to be different or ask for accountability.
The latest
has been the use of men of the Nigerian Army to wage genocidal attack on
peaceful and unarmed #EndSARS protesters especially at the Lekki Toll Gate in
Lagos. A full scale war declared illegally in Port Harcourt has claimed the
lives of scores of unarmed civilians.
Never on my
own side have I ever used anything other than the Law to resist the attempts
return us to 1984. For instance, when these elements suddenly woke up one
morning in October 2019 and gave to themselves the power to go on the streets
to conduct military operations against civilians under the guise of a so-called
Operation Positive Identification, I instituted the Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1939/19
with a view to bringing them back to the path of constitutional rectitude. In
the case, the Federal High Court declared such operation illegal. The presiding
Judge, the Honourable Justice Aikawa issued a restraining injunction and said.
“It would be
outside the powers of the 3rd Respondent (the Nigerian Army) for it to parade
the streets in the rest of the country and demand citizens to show their
identity cards and the like. If there is any security need for that, my view is
that it should be left in the hands of the police, which is the security agency
vested with these functions as spelt out by Section 4 of the Police Act.”
It was
because they have no respect for the Rule and the duly constituted courts that
these elements have persisted in dabbling into politics and civil affairs as
recently shown in their deployment of soldiers in full battle gear and war
formation against peaceful protesters. They should learn from their USA
counterparts who, despite all encouragements by the President of the country,
refused to run such errands for those in transient political authority.
Thanks to the
advancement in science and technology, it has been impossible to bury or sweep
under the carpet the Kaduna genocide, because the world has moved beyond what
obtained in 1984 when the NTA and the FRCN were the major means of information
gathering and mass dissemination of news. And thanks to the International
Community, there has also come into existence the Rome Statue of the
International Criminal Court by which state actors can be held accountable for
crimes such as was perpetrated in Kaduna in December, 2015.
So, thanks to
this international convention, the era of Unknown Soldier is long dead and
buried. It is now no longer possible for any state actor to use his or her
control of executive or influence over judicial levers of state power to sweep
crimes of these magnitudes under the carpet. Just as the Kaduna State Judicial
Commission of Inquiry has not thwarted the efforts at the international level
to bring the powerful individuals res ponsible for the Kaduna genocide to book,
the current exertions by those responsible for the latest use of men of the
Nigerian army to massacre peaceful protesters are sure to be in vain.
I hear that
those who (by virtue of the state offices they hold relative to these matters)
are sure to be called-upon by the ICC for explanation are going about trying to
divert attention away from themselves. I even hear that one such attempt has,
in a complaint to the ICC, named me, Femi Falana, as responsible for allegedly
instigating the violent EndSARS protests that led to killing innocent citizens,
wanton destruction of properties and other heinous crimes against humanity in
Nigeria. According to online reports, the alleged petitioner is Joseph Nwaegbu,
Esq. a senior Associate of Pathfind Attorneys on behalf of Make Nigeria Better
Initiative (MNBI).
Mr. Joseph Nwaegbu/Pathfind
Attorneys/MNBI and their shadowy minders and paymasters obviously think that
the ICC is a forum for frivolities, especially of the type we have gotten
accustomed to in Nigeria (like, government and government officials hiring
praise-singers or protesters to counter-balance genuine protesters!). They will
sooner or later know that the ICC is not such a place. I welcome them to pursue
their petition. I move around the world and I have easy and undisturbed
passage. I hope the shadowy minders and paymasters of Mr. Joseph
Nwaegbu/Pathfind Attorneys/MNBI are able to do likewise. In fact, I challenge
them to dare!
To the
Guilty, Be Afraid. Be very afraid!
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