The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) charges President Muhammadu Buhari to
use his attendance of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) Rome Statute to report his
administration to the court over documented human right abuses, crime
against humanity and killings in Nigeria under his watch.
The party said the fact that President Buhari is the only head of state
invited to the event shows that the world is particularly alarmed by the
spate of bloodletting, extra-judicial executions, illegal arrests,
arbitrary detention, torture and reported disappearances, as captured in
the reports by the United States Department of State, Amnesty
International (AI) and Transparency International (TI).
The PDP notes that contrary to the effort by the Presidency to present
the invitation as positive for the Buhari Presidency, the administration
has a lot of questions to answer.
What the Presidency seeks to hide from Nigerians is that the ICC Rome
Statute deals directly with critical issues of crime against humanity,
which is already prevalent in Nigeria under President Buhari’s watch.
The PDP recalls that it had earlier filed a petition at the United
Nations (UN) against the Buhari administration over issues of human
rights violations in our country.
The party therefore calls on the ICC to take President Buhari to task on
the documented abuse of human rights in Nigeria, particularly, the US
Department of State 2017 Human Right Report, which catalogued issues of
extrajudicial and arbitrary killings; disappearances and arbitrary
detentions and torture, particularly in detention facilities in Nigeria
under this administration.