From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has disclosed plans to petition the International Criminal Court (ICC), over electoral violence recorded in the just concluded general polls in Ebonyi State.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, charged the National Assembly to direct the Nigerian Police Force, Army, National Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) Immigration and the Federal Roads Safety Corps(FRSC) to carry out an audit of their personnel during the polls.
Onwubiko argued that there was no justification for the gross “abdication of their pre- election and election security duties” witnessed in Ebonyi, Lagos and Rivers and Kano States.
According to him, most of the deaths recorded were politically motivated which is why he would write to Amnesty International to also conduct an independent investigation on the alleged executions.
“The horrific and horrendous crimes against humanity that occurred during the elections in Ebonyi State have already been captured in a detailed report that HURIWA will despatch to the international Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands.
“The political intolerance in Ebonyi during Governor Dave Umahi and his All Progressives Congress party reached a crescendo in the buildup to the 2023 general elections and this was responsible for the withdrawal of our support for Umahi’s Senate Presidency ambition.
“Already, we have drawn up a list of citizens killed before, during and after the 2023 poll in Ebonyi State under the current dispensation and we are asking the USA, UK, AUSTRALIA, Canada, EU and the ICC to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate and those responsible and to prosecute them either in Nigeria or in ICC for crimes against humanity.
“We are not saying Governor Umahi did the killings but as the Chief security officer of Ebonyi State he is legally obliged to render absolute accounts of all these unwarranted killings during his 8 years regime,” he said.