The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the International Criminal Court to urgently investigate allegations that certain high ranking public officials and politicians in Nigeria are among the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect that has continued to engage in unlawful killings, destruction of civil property and cases of extra-judicial executions.
In a petition to the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court (ICC), Ms Fatou Bensouda, the group requested that the court “brings to justice anyone complicit in these international crimes prohibited under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to which Nigeria is a state party”.
In the petition, the organisation expressed concerns that so far, those who are responsible for the grave violations of international law had not been identified let alone prosecuted.
“Worryingly, government’s initiated probes with recommendations on those that may be behind the Boko Haram attacks have not yet been implemented.
“A government committee in 2011 recommended the prosecution of some politicians for funding and providing general support to Boko Haram. This recommendation remains unimplemented as the government White Paper on it published in 2012 has been ignored,” the organisation said in the request signed by SERAP Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni.
The organisation said that, a Perth-based international adviser to Nigeria, Dr. Stephen Davis, who for four months was involved in negotiations on behalf of the Federal Government with commanders of Boko Haram for the release of over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the sect in April, had named certain high ranking public officials as sponsors of Boko Haram.
Dr Davis had disclosed that a former governor of Borno State, a former chief of army staff and a former top official of the Central Bank of Nigeria have provided funds and other logistics to Boko Haram to commit crimes under international law.
The organisation also said that it remained concerned that given the antecedents of successive governments to ignore reports and recommendations of national agencies and institutions in situations like this, it was convinced that intervention by the ICC would bring international pressure to bear on the government to honour its international obligations by promptly identifying and bringing to justice those sponsoring and providing support for the Boko Haram attacks.
Arguing that “substantial grounds exist to warrant the intervention of the Prosecutor in this case, especially given the scale of the killings and destruction and the lack of transparency and accountability,” the organisation asked the ICC Prosecutor to urgently investigate allegations that high ranking public officials and politicians are sponsoring and providing support for the Boko Haram attacks and also invite representatives of the Nigerian government to provide written or oral testimony at the seat of the Court.
Other requests by SERAP are for the court to bring to justice those suspected to be complicit and therefore responsible for crimes under international law and extra-judicial executions in other parts of Nigeria and urged the the Nigerian government to fulfil its obligations under the Rome Statute to cooperate with the ICC; including complying with your requests to arrest and surrender suspected sponsors and perpetrators of international crimes, take testimony, and provide other support to the ICC.
