Amnesty International has responded to the Nigerian military’s claim that it refused to honour its invitation to join the investigative panel on allegations of human rights abuse in the North East.
Nigeria Researcher, Amnesty International, Daniel Eyre, was live on Channels Television on Friday afternoon and he made it clear that Amnesty International does not want to be part of that investigative panel.
The Chief of Administration of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Adamu Abubakar, had earlier explained that the essence of inviting Amnesty International officials to join its investigative panel was to guarantee fairness and justice while proving that the military has nothing to hide.
Mr Eyre, however, stated; “What we called for in our report is an independent, impartial and comprehensive investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in North-East Nigeria by Boko Haram as well as by the military.
“We’ve received a very positive response from the President of Nigeria. He said that it would be one of the first things on the agenda of the Attorney-General when he is appointed and also that he would leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of human rights violations. So, we are waiting for those investigations.
“In terms of the military’s own, Amnesty International has done its work, we’ve spoken to more than 400 witnesses, victims, human rights defenders, local government officials.
“We’ve done our research and made that evidence public. We’ve submitted it to the Nigerian military before hand. Its now for them and for the Nigerian Government to investigate these allegations,” he said.
On the validity of the Nigerian military’s invitation, the AI official maintained the stand that the international organisation had done its part of the job. He recalled previous attempts made by them to draw attention to the alleged atrocities by Nigerian soldiers.
“We’ve laid it out clearly for the military. Its now for them and the military to investigate and to hold people accountable for these actions.”
While stating that Amnesty International sees no need to be part of the investigations by the military having done its due diligence, he added that their expectations are that “people should be investigated and if there is sufficient evidence against them, they should be tried in fair trials without use of the death penalty.”
