Leah Sharibu Marks 150 Days In Captivity
– lawyer’s interview on Buhari at ICC & Ekiti elections
In a week of protests around Nigerian embassies in world centers, the killings in Nigeria continue to gain attention.
We wish to commend the Nigerian army on the capture of Boko Haram Terrorists involved in the Chibok Schoolgirl mass abduction of 2014.
Finally the UK Government has denied knowledge of villages occupied by Fulani Herdsmen in Plateau. See below:
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL9364):
Question:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent disclosure during a plenary session of the Nigerian House of Representatives that 52 villages in four local government areas in Plateau State have been occupied by the herder militia responsible for the deaths of 238 residents of those villages. (HL9364)
Tabled on: 10 July 2018
Answer:
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon:
We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence in parts of the Central and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria, including in Plateau State. The situation is complex and access to information is limited. We are not able to verify whether villages in Plateau State have been occupied by herders. We welcome President Buhari’s strong condemnation of the violence and his commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice. We call for solutions that meet the needs of all affected communities and prevent further violence.
Date and time of answer: 19 Jul 2018 at 12:43.
NOTE:
- The answer will be published on the Parliament web site approximately 45-90 minutes after this e-mail notification was sent to you. You can view it here: http://www.parliament.
uk/writtenanswers
Additional resources:
PSA protester at Nigerian mission New York
National President of PSA USA flanked by members at Nigerian embassy protest Washington
PREVIOUSLY
The release of the abducted schoolgirls is the solitary achievement of this administration after 3 years but sadly it remains an uncompleted project just like the Chibok girls Saga. Although the Buhari administration achieved a negotiated release of over 100 girls, another 100 Chibok girls remain unaccounted for and none have been released for over a year.
It is troubling that an administration which rode to power on the firestorm over the Chibok abductions and is a principal beneficiary of that unfortunate saga has not deemed it fit to complete the total liberation of the girls. More worrisome is the fact that the government managed to, in its sole notable achievement thus far, secure the release of some of the girls. Having found the appropriate resolution mechanism it makes no sense other than state failure for the government to be unable to secure their total release or credibly explain why not.
Similarly the Dapchi mass abduction saga resulted in the first speedy mass abduction resolution midwifed by the Department of State Security. It is disconcerting that the DSS would negotiate the release of all but one of the remaining Dapchi schoolgirls more so the sole Christian captive. Again there is no rationale explanation why a DSS that has successfully secured the release of the Muslim girls has failed, refused or neglected to bring back Leah 3 months after her schoolmates.
We remind the Federal Government that
“Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Excerpt from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
Genocidal acts need not kill or cause the death of members of a group. Causing serious bodily or mental harm, prevention of births and transfer of children are acts of genocide when committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s existence. The systematic targeting of northern Nigeria’s Christian minorities’ children for abduction and transfer to Islam fits squarely within this definition of Genocide in sub paragraph (e) above.
Based on the above, we hereby give notice to the Federal Government to produce:
– Leah Sharibu, age 15, the sole remaining hostage of the Dapchi mass abduction held for 4 months plus on account of her Christian faith and
– Dorcas Yakubu the youngest Chibok abductee who was abducted at age 15 and 100 others held for 4 years and forcefully converted to Islam
by July 1st 2018 failing which these genocidal abductions shall be escalated to the International Criminal Court for the Prosecutor’s attention.
We wish to decry the failure of the Nigerian Government to meet with or brief the Sharibu family on the state of their abducted daughter four months after the fact. Indeed the only government officials to have met the family is a visiting EU parliamentary delegation.
This is an unfortunate repeat of the failure of Nigerian government officials to meet some escaped Chibok girls until after they met a visiting US congressional delegation in June 2014.
Youngest Chibok SchoolGirl Dorcas Yakubu abducted at 15 turned 20 on June 8, 2018
END
Emmanuel Ogebe, Esq.
US NIGERIA LAW GROUP
