We’ll hand over B’ Haram suspects to ICC –Presidency • Says amnesty committee still on course
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati.
The Federal Government has said it will
hand over arrested members of the Boko Haram sect to the International
Criminal Court located at The Hague, Netherlands, for prosecution.
The Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, who made the Presidency’s
position known in an exclusive interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, however, said the sect members would only be handed over to the ICC based on request.
He explained that the Federal Government had yet to receive such a request from the court.
The Defence Headquarters last week said it had over 1,000 Boko Haram suspects in its custody.
This revelation was made shortly after
the Chief Prosecutor of ICC, Fatou Bensouda, said there was a reason to
believe that crimes against humanity had been committed in Nigeria by
the militant group. She
identified the crimes committed by the group as
murder and persecution.
Abati said the statement by the ICC
vindicated the Federal Government, adding that the statement was a
further proof of international support of the government’s efforts at
curbing terrorism.
He said, “The Federal Government has not
received any request from the ICC for the handing over of suspects. You
know how the ICC operates; what it does is that it makes specific
requests to the affected country.
“What happened is that the ICC
prosecutor made a statement to the effect that the Boko Haram terrorists
and insurgents might be found guilty of crimes against humanity but it
has not followed it up with making specific requests to the Nigerian
government to hand over either persons that have been arrested, who are
in detention or who may be arrested in the future.”
When asked whether the government would
be willing to hand over the suspects to ICC once the request is made,
Abati replied, “Certainly yes.”
The presidential spokesman added that
what the ICC statement further showed was that counter-terrorism measure
that had been adopted by the present administration was receiving
widespread support.
He said, “The ICC prosecutor said there
may have been issues about the security agencies being very proactive
but that it is very clear that Nigerian security agencies are not
targeting civilians.
“That I think is an important statement
that needs to be re-echoed. Rather, it is the insurgents themselves that
are guilty of crime against humanity. Indeed, the ICC prosecutor went
further to commend the Jonathan administration for its counter-terrorism
efforts to restore peace, stability to that part of the country.”
Abati said the Nigerian government had
shown clearly the capacity to deal with the insurgents and also shown
the political will to ensure peace and stability.
He said the fact that there were one or two incidents did not undermine what had been achieved by the joint task forces.
If anything, the presidential spokesman said the insurgents and terrorists were proving to be desperate.
He claimed that the propaganda that the
sect members were putting out that they had been able to overwhelm the
security agencies was falsehood.
“The reality is that the security
agencies have been able to destroy the enclave that they (the
insurgents) have created for themselves.
“They have been able to weaken their
operations, they have been able to inspire confidence among the populace
so much that the young people in the affected areas themselves saw the
need to take ownership of the efforts at solidifying peace. These are
some of the things that have been achieved,” he said.
Abati added that the Kabiru Turaki-led
Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security
Challenges in the North has been doing a great job.
He said the Federal Government had taken
steps to protect the interest of special groups, who might be
unnecessarily dragged into the conflict through the information provided
by the committee.
He said the idea behind the setting up
of the committee was to achieve sustainable peace and stability in the
affected parts of the country.
He added, “As for the committee that was
set up for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the North-eastern
part of the country, that committee is also doing a very good job.
“The point that President Jonathan made
in his address when he declared a state of emergency is that the
Nigerian government’s approach is not a one-track approach, it is a
multi-track approach and that multi-track approach includes taking steps
at providing opportunities for dialogue, taking steps at providing
opportunities for amnesty, taking steps at creating a machinery to
getting to the root of the matter through dialogue and consultation.
“The long term objective of the Nigerian
government is to ensure sustainable peace and stability. And there are
stakeholders in those areas, who can make solid contributions to peace
building process to ensure that a situation like this does not arise and
to ensure that key steps are taken to prevent such insurgency on a long
term basis.”
When one of our correspondents asked the
Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, if
security agencies were planning to launch an operation to arrest the
Boko Haram leaders and hand them over to the ICC, he said that all
arrested terrorists would be processed for prosecution.
He said that it was the mandate of the security operatives to hunt down and arrest all insurgents.
He said, “All arrested insurgents will
be processed for prosecution. It is in line with our mandate to arrest
and prosecute all terrorists.”
A source in the Directorate of Public
Prosecutions in the Federal Ministry of Justice informed one of our
correspondents that the Federal Government was committed to its legal
obligations to the ICC as stipulated under Article 89 of the Rome
Statute of the ICC and Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Laws
of Treaties.
Nigeria ratified the ICC statute on
September 27, 2001, giving the court the jurisdiction over relevant
crimes committed in the country.
Being a state party to the Rome Statute
of the ICC, and in line with Article 89(1) and 91 of the Rome Statute
and Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties, Nigeria
has a legal obligation to cooperate with the ICC and the international
community to enforce the warrant of arrest and surrender of persons
indicted for crimes against humanity.
The source, who did not wish to be
named, was reacting to a recent statement in which the ICC declared that
acts of murder and persecution attributed to Boko Haram sect were
crimes against humanity.
The ICC, in the statement, disclosed
that it was still conducting a preliminary examination of the Boko Haram
situation in Nigeria, adding that it would advance to the third phase
of the exercise, which involves an evaluation of national attempts to
prosecute Boko Haram.
The Federal Government is expected to
make all reports and past investigations relating to the Boko Haram sect
available to the ICC during the third phase of the assessment, which
will pave the way for a formal warrant on members of the group.
Several arrested Boko Haram members, who are in detention, are already facing trial before several courts in the country.
Stressing that the Federal Government
has been prosecuting the captured Boko Haram members adequately, the
source noted that the government would have no issues with cooperating
with the ICC, if need be.
The source said, “The statement of the
ICC prosecutor was well received, we have no problems with that, I
believe we are all working towards the same purpose, which is to put a
stop to all manner of atrocities in the country. But at the moment,
there is no formal request for the arrest and extradition of anybody,
the ICC has not issued any warrant for Boko Haram members.
“We have not been waiting for that, the
security agencies have been engaging the group, there have been
significant arrests and those persons that were apprehended are
currently being prosecuted, convictions have been made. So, the response
in terms of prosecution has been adequate.
“If there is any warrant from the ICC,
the Federal Government will consider that, the government is committed
to its obligations to the ICC under the Rome Statute.”
But the source refused to offer any
explanation for the inability of the Federal Government to arrest and
surrender to the ICC, Sudanese President, Omar Al-Bashir, during his
visit to the country in July.
The ICC had issued warrants of arrest
against Al-Bashir on March 4, 2009 and July 12, 2010, after indicting
him for crimes against humanity during the crisis in the Darfur region
of Sudan. But the Federal Government failed to enforce the warrant while
Al-Bashir was in the country for an African Union conference on
HIV/AIDS.
However, the source noted that the
Federal Government had initiated extradition proceedings against a
Nigerian, Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi, who is suspected to be a member of the
Al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The Federal Government had applied to an
Abuja Federal High Court for the extradition of Babafemi (32 years)
also described as “Abdullah” and “Ayatollah Mustapher,” to the United
States, where he is being wanted for his alleged involvement in
terrorism- related activities.
Attempts to reach the Attorney-General
of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, to
comment on the issue, were not successful as at the time of filing this
report. An SMS sent to his mobile telephone was not replied.
