Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Civil Rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, has written to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha, and Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Musiliu Smith, demanding a joint investigation board into the Oraifite-Anambra police and army mayhem of December 2, 2019.
Board Chairman of intersociety, Emeka Umegabalasi, lawyers Obianuju Igboeli, Head of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Chinwe Umeche, Head of Democracy and Good Governance and Ndidiamaka Bernard Chinaza, Head of Int’l Justice & Human Rights, who signed the letters said their request was to establish ‘criminal’ and ‘civil’ involvements and their ‘service’ and ‘civil’ parties; with the overall aim of ensuring justice to the victims, justice to the society, including deterrence and the peace loving people of Oraifite and justice to the perpetrators or ‘criminal parties’.
In the second letter to the PSC, the group demanded the investigation of police officers that vicariously or directly took part in the catastrophic mayhem.
“In the Oraifite catastrophic mayhem, the police and their partners in crime, including soldiers gravely messed up and acted abominably and atrociously and having realized the quantum of ‘service’ atrocities perpetrated, including massive burning and destruction of properties, they hurriedly resorted to ‘frame-ups’ and ‘collateral atrocities’ so as to escape justice and moral damnation”
The group recalled that similar service atrocities happened in September 2017 in Abia State when having realized the gravity and enormity of atrocities perpetrated against the defenseless citizens of the state, including massacre and maiming of hundreds in three days, the Defense Headquarters and the Federal Government hurriedly declared the victim group (IPOB) a “terrorist group” so as to escape local and international justice.
Intersociety said unless all the ‘service’ perpetrators in the Oraifite mayhem are fished out and punished accordingly, otherwise such ‘service’ atrocities would become a routine or operational tradition in the Nigerian security and defense establishments
The group also clarified that the joint investigation board it requested is not a commission of enquiry or a judicial commission of enquiry, which is or are toothless bulldog and time wasting.
“Ours is a joint investigation board with criminal elements and civil elements content and functionality to be subdivided into criminal and civil investigations sub boards. Members of the criminal investigation sub board shall be drawn (not monopolize) from DMI, SSS, Force CID, Office of the National Security Adviser and the Police Service Commission and may further include civil or independent criminologists, criminal lawyers, crime investigative journalists and intelligence experts,” the group said.