By Aloy Ejimakor
The Rome Statute is the international treaty that founded the International Criminal Court. Comprising of 13 parts, it establishes the governing framework for the Court. Adopted at the Rome Conference on July 17, 1998, it came into force on July 1, 2002, thereby creating the International Criminal Court. The Statute sets out the Court’s jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and – as of an amendment in 2010 – the crime of aggression.
Nigeria has ratified the Statute, thus making the Nigerian State and non-state actors subject to the jurisdiction of ICC. The Nigerian State means its President and his appointees, especially the heads of the security agencies, their commanders, officers and the other ranks under them. It also includes governors and all personnel working under their authority, directly or indirectly.Among other things, the International Criminal Court was created to end impunity for perpetrators of genocide or crimes against humanity and it is easily implicated wherever the perpetrators are the same as the persons officially saddled with the responsibility of protecting their victims. An example will include where state actors are known to have issued orders that directly or indirectly led to extrajudicial killings or other inhumane treatment.The
Statute defines genocide, in pertinent part, as including the killings or
causing serious bodily or mental harm to an ethnic or national group with the
intent to destroy them in whole or in part. If other elements are met, genocide
becomes easier to prove when the perpetrator is of a different ethnicity from
his victims. Nigeria is a tinderbox because of its many ethnicities and the
genocidal tendencies that have been driving some of its officials in the
implementation of security operations when it comes to a particular ethnicity.
Crimes
against humanity include the widespread or systematic attack directed against
any civilian population through murder, extermination, torture, imprisonment or
other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules
of international law. Included also is persecution against any identifiable
group or collectivity on political, ethnic or religious grounds universally
recognised as impermissible under international law.
This is where Nigerian State actors need to be
very circumspect when dealing with proponents of self-determination because
self-determination is a political opinion clearly recognised under
international law. No government official enjoys immunity from ICC prosecution
for genocide or crimes against humanity and there is no statute of limitation.
In plain terms, neither the Nigerian Constitution or its sovereignty, nor the
passage of time will protect you. Just imagine how long it took to nab Charles
Taylor. Under the Statute, commanders and superiors are saddled with special
criminal responsibilities.
In
particular, a military or police commander, de jure or de facto, is criminally
responsible for crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction if committed by forces
under his effective control or authority. Within purview also are crimes caused
by neglecting to exercise proper control over forces under him where the
commander either knew or should have known that the forces were committing or
soon to commit such crimes and the commander neglected to take all necessary
and reasonable measures within his power to prevent them or to submit the
matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.
If
the commander or superior officer is the one directly suborning the crime, such
as in the case of Slobodan Miloševi or Charles Taylor, the elements of the
offense are met without more. Suborning the crime includes issuing direct
orders to “shoot to kill or shoot at sight”. And for junior officers or other
ranks, superior orders are not defenses to genocide or crimes against humanity.
This
means that when your superior officer orders you to “kill them all”, think
twice before pulling that trigger. The ICC Prosecutor shall initiate an
investigation of alleged genocide or crimes against humanity upon receipt and
evidentiary evaluation of information that provides a reasonable basis for the
allegation.
On
December 11, 2020, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, which has been
investigating Nigeria for crimes that implicate the Rome Statute, made the
following findings, amongst others: “Following a thorough process, I can
announce today that the statutory criteria for opening an investigation into
the situation in Nigeria have been met. Specifically, we have found a
reasonable basis to believe that members of the Nigerian Security Forces have
committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity and war
crimes: murder, rape, torture and cruel treatment; enforced disappearance;
outrages upon personal dignity; intentionally directing attacks against
civilian population and against individual civilians; unlawful imprisonment;
persecution on political grounds; and other inhumane acts’.
Anybody
who has been observing Nigeria since late 2015 would easily discern that some
of the evidence examined by the ICC Chief Prosecutor included the killings at
Nkpor in Anambra State, the night vigil killings in Aba, Abia State, the
Onitsha Head bridge killings, the killings issuing from Python Dance at
Afaraukwu, Abia State and in which IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, nearly lost
his life and lately the August 2020 Enugu massacre and the killing of EndSARS
protesters in October 2020 in Lagos.
It’s
instructive that these killings occurred from the inception of the present
administration and state actors were implicated from the lowest rungs to the
very top. The evidence, including visuals, is legion and unassailable. So, your
guess as to who might ultimately be charged before the ICC is as good as mine.
For now, the jury is still out on their identity because the developing
indictment is as yet sealed.
Meanwhile,
after December 2020, there have been more killings, woundings, torture and
rape, including particularly at Obigbo and other locations in Rivers State and
the South-East, and lately the killings that have occurred and still occurring
in the wake of the current security operations in Eastern Nigeria, code-named Operation
Restore Peace which – in its implementation – is beginning to look like
a misnomer.
In
the midst of all these, it will be naive and foolhardy for Nigerian state
actors (Federal, state and local) to believe that the ICC is not keeping tabs
and building a stronger case from the quantum of credible evidence mined from
the many petitions streaming in from various sources. So, for what it is worth,
this humble piece is an early warning to all Nigerian officials who are –
directly or indirectly – involved in any extrajudicial killings or other
inhumane treatments that appear to be the order of the day in this era.
*Ejimakor, a lawyer, wrote from Alaigbo, Imo State
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