Real reason ICC invited Buhari –PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has made a claim on why President Muhammadu Buhari was the only head of state invited to participate at the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the International Criminal Court (ICC), at The Hague Rome Statute.

It 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 therefore charged Buhari to use his attendance of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the 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.

Buhari’s media aide had in a statement announcing the invitation said that the Nigerian President “as the current anti-corruption champion for the African Union, will use the global platform to reaffirm Nigeria’s support to the fundamental values of the Rome Statute and to the ideals of the ICC. He will also highlight his administration’s campaign against corruption in Nigeria.”

But the PDP said in the statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, 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.

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“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 statement read in part.

The party therefore called 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 cataloged issues of extrajudicial and arbitrary killings; disappearances and arbitrary detentions and torture, particularly in detention facilities in Nigeria under this administration.

 

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