From Jude Owuamanam, Managing Editor, Northern Operations
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Lawyers representing some members of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), who were allegedly tortured by some security agencies have said that Nigeria is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians.
The lawyers were in Nigeria to ascertain the claim of their clients as a result of alleged killings and other acts of torture meted out to them.
In a statement released from Washington DC by the law firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC on their concluded visit to Nigeria, the lawyers said agents of the Nigerian State routinely defile the sanctity of churches by killing children and hiding their tiny bodies in pews thus
violating Nigeria’s secular constitution.
The statement is entitled, UNITED STATES LAWYERS REPORT ON ONE WEEK TRIP TO ENUGU, NIGERIA TO
GATHER FACTS AND TO CONDUCT RESEARCH TO ADVANCE THEIR TORTURE VICTIMS
PROTECTION ACT LAWSUIT IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ON BEHALF OF TEN IGBO PLAINTIFFS AGAINST SIXTEEN NIGERIAN DEFENDANTS INCLUDING GOVERNORS OBIANO OF ANAMBRA STATE AND
IKPEAZU OF ABIA STATE FOR COMPLICITY IN TORTURE AND EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS UNDER COLOUR OF NIGERIAN LAW MOTIVATED BY THE IGBO ETHNICITY, CHRISTIAN FAITH, AND POLITICAL VIEWPOINT OF THE VICTIMS.
The lawyers said the atrocities mostly committed by the Islamic group, the Boko Haram, have continued unchecked, killing 11,000 Christians, destroyed 13,000 churches and 1,500
Christian schools.
The report said, “The law firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC travelled to Enugu, Nigeria—the heart of Igboland—from August 19-August 24, 2017.
Our visit was to meet with our plaintiffs-clients, to gather facts and to conduct research to advance the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) lawsuit we have filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of ten (10) anonymous plaintiffs
against sixteen (16) individual defendants for extra-judicial killings
and torture perpetrated under colour of Nigerian law motived by the Igbo ethnicity, Christian faith, and political viewpoints of the victims. The case is styled John Doe, et al v. Turkur Yusuf Buratai, et al, Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-0133.
“Plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages to secure justice for the Igbo people, to give them hope for the future, and to deter genocide, ethnic cleansing or the extermination of Christians in Nigeria by radical Islamic Hausa-Fulani terrorists in Northern
Nigeria. We are convinced that Nigeria is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians. They routinely defile the sanctity of churches by killing children hiding their tiny bodies in pews. In
violation of Nigeria’s professed secular constitution, Nigeria has joined the Organisation of Islamic Unity and twelve northern states have adopted Sharia law. The Christian Open Door Report of 2015 found that Boko Haram, the northeast Islamic terrorist organisation, had
killed 11,000 Christians, destroyed 13,000 churches and 1,500
Christian schools, had created 2.6 million internally displaced persons, and forced 1.3 million Christians to flee.
“On July 11, 2017 by the Fulani Youth Consultative Forum (ACYF) issued
an odious, chilling and genocidal threat to plunder the properties and evict by force and violence eleven (11) million Igbos peacefully residing in Northern Nigeria if they do not vacate the region by October 1, 2017. The Government of Nigeria and nineteen northern
States have tacitly endorsed the ACYF threatened genocide of twice the
number who was exterminated by the Nazis in the Holocaust! The
federal and state governments in northern Nigeria have refused to
arrest even a single ACYF member.
“In our Buratai suit, the District Court issued an order granting the plaintiff’s motion to proceed anonymously because they reasonably feared lethal retaliation against themselves or families if their identities were known.
“The actions of the defendants were crimes against humanity that can
be prosecuted in any jurisdiction in the world. Indeed, the Convention Against Torture mandates that signatory nations like the United States and Nigeria prosecute the crimes of torture or
extra-judicial killings.
“Fourteen of the individual defendants are federal officials and two are state governors in the Southeast. One of the two Governors, Willie Obiano of Anambra State has already apologised for the brutal killings of plaintiffs that he admits were perpetrated under his aegis. The other defendant Governor is Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
“The defendants have yet to answer. Several are in default for failure to respond within 21 days of the service of the summons and Complaint.
We are optimistic about our chances of victory at trial or earlier.
Defendants are represented by a small Nigerian law firm in California
thousands of miles from the venue of the litigation in the District of
Columbia. The defendants’ representative law firm said they have been contacted by the Government of Nigeria, not by the individual
defendants.
“We salute the courage of our ten anonymous plaintiffs and their brave
supporters throughout Igboland. We are unified in our insistence on obtaining justice for the Igbo people through peaceful and lawful means that disavow the lawless savagery of their persecutors. They should tremble when they reflect that God is just, and that his
justice will not sleep.”