The Nigerian Army says international human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has failed to honour its invitation to join its investigative panel on the alleged human rights abuse in the North East.
Reacting to a report by the international human rights group on June 3, the Chief of Administration of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Adamu Abubakar, 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.
Even though the military had reacted in various press statements, it has found time to detail its activities following the release of the report.
Major-General Adamu Abubakar denied claims that the military did not cooperate with the rights group in the process of its investigation.
The military, according to him, has zero tolerance for human rights abuses and other war crimes, promising to investigate thoroughly the investigation by the human rights group.
He, however, said that the report from their investigation may take a while to be concluded since withdrawing troops from the front-line for investigation may dampen and affect the war against insurgency in the area.
On June 3, the international human rights group released a report titled ‘Stars On Their Shoulders, Blood On Their Hands’.
The group called for the investigation and prosecution of senior military officers on the grounds that the military has committed crimes against humanity in its fight against terrorism.
Independent Investigation
Meanwhile, 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.
Mr Eyre 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 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.
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.”
