Civil rights organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), yesterday claimed that the International Criminal Court had decided to probe the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians and other African citizens in South Africa. This was disclosed in a statement released yesterday by SERAP’s executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni. According to SERAP, ICC made the decision following a petition letter it sent to the court calling on the prosecutor, Mrs Fatou Bensouda, to investigate allegations of hate speech made by the Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini, which triggered the killings, violence and discrimination against Nigerians and other African citizens living in South Africa.

The organisation had, in a petition dated April 23, 2015 and sent to the court, requested Mrs Bensouda to use her “good offices and position to bring to justice anyone who is responsible for these international crimes prohibited under the Rome Statute of the ICC. SERAP said that, in response to its letter, the ICC, in a letter dated April 28, 2015, and signed by M.P. Dillon, head of Information and Evidence Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor, stated, “The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC acknowledges receipt of your documents.

“This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the Office. We will give consideration to this communication, as appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC. As soon as a decision is reached, we will inform you, in writing, and provide you with reasons for this decision.” SERAP in its petition had said that it “considers the use of speech by the Zulu King to promote hatred and/or incite violence against non-nationals such as Nigerians, particularly in the media, as a clear violation of the provisions of the Rome Statute of ICC.”

Why Jonathan fired foreign affairs perm sec

President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Danjuma Sheni, with immediate effect. According to a presidential aide, the president removed Sheni for causing him “huge embarrassment” in the way the xenophobia saga in South Africa has been handled. The aide who spoke on condition of anonymity said the main action that cost Sheni his job was his decision to recall Nigeria’s envoys from South Africa. He said that the president was visibly angry over the negative reaction that greeted the purported recall of the Nigerian envoys to South Africa, adding that the president’s assent was not sought over the action. The presidential aide noted that what saved the minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, from being sacked was the fact that Jonathan had just about a month to leave office.

He said, “The permanent secretary was suspended for causing the president embarrassment. In this age of diplomatic dispatches, you don’t need to recall or invite any envoy before you ask questions. The man (Sheni) has been queried and has been dismissed. “The minister himself would have been fired if not because we have just one month to go. “In less than two months, they had embarrassed the government. They did the same mess in the Morocco saga. They were issuing statements without the president’s approval.” The presidency yesterday refuted a report claiming that Nigeria had recalled its envoys from South Africa in protest to the xenophobic attacks against African migrants.

Presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, who described the said report as fallacious, explained that the envoys were only invited for routine briefing.

Wali, Obanikoro, envoys beg Nigerians

The minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali and his minister of state, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, as well as the Nigerian envoys in South Africa, Messrs Uche Ajulu-Okeke and Martin Cobham, yesterday pleaded with Nigerians to forgive the South Africans over their recent xenophobic attacks against foreigners living in their country. They made the plea when they appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, following their invitation by the Senate for briefing over the matter. The Senate had last week urged the federal government to drag the Zulu king to the ICC and also issued sweeping summons to the Nigerian ambassador to South Africa.The delegation pleaded with the Senate to reconsider its stand over its five-point resolution seeking severance of certain bilateral relationship with the South African country. However, officials of the Foreign Affairs ministry said taking drastic actions against South Africans because of the incident would adversely affect its economy, and attract negative publicity to Nigeria.

“At the moment, the situation has not warranted such drastic actions like recalling our envoys in the South African country. We are big brothers of Africa. We cannot retaliate by recalling our envoys because it will send wrong signals which could affect their economy. “Even countries whose citizens were killed and had their shops looted have not taken such action,” the foreign minister, Aminu Wali said. He added that the police in South Africa seemed to be overwhelmed hence authorities of the country drafted the military, especially to the ghettoes, to maintain law and order because security reports had indicted the police of being part of the problem. On the Zulu king, Wali revealed that the South African Human Rights Commission was already investigating his roles. He said: “We need to wait for the outcome of the investigation so that we don’t assume holier than thou status. What we need to do now is to make sure that there is support from our government to make sure that Nigerians affected are well taken care of.”

He also explained that a total of N84 million had been calculated as damage done to Nigerians, adding that the sum is being processed on behalf of the victims so that they can get compensation. On his part Obanikoro said the Zulu King had addressed a news conference in Durban where he invited envoys of the affected countries and refuted the allegation that he incited people against foreigners. According to him, “Since kings in Africa do not admit mistakes or offer apology publicly, for Zulu to have done this, it means it’s his own way of offering an apology.” On the issue of compensation, he said: “The issue of compensation is on the table. We have the list of affected Nigerians, the level of damage and how to adequately compensate the victims. We will ensure that compensation is paid to all the affected victims; their envoy in Nigeria has not given us any cause to doubt this.”

8 Nigerians ‘affected’ by xenophobic violence – Minister

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali yesterday reported that eight Nigerians were affected by the outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa. Wali made the disclosure in a presentation before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs at the National Assembly, Abuja. Quoting figures released by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs, the foreign affairs minister, in a breakdown, reported that five Nigerian-owned shops were looted, two Nigerian families displaced, two Nigerians wounded, two women displaced and two children affected.

Wali told the House Committee that “Nigerians were not targets of the xenophobic violence but suffered collateral damage.”The minister traced South Africa’s history of xenophobic violence to the country’s former apartheid policy.“They (South Africa) only have political independence, not economic independence… Nigeria midwifed the birth of South Africa; it is not for not for us to retaliate but to sympathise with them,” Wali told the House Committee.Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon. NnennaElendu-Ukeje, at the meeting said the general feeling among Nigerians on the xenophobic attacks was that the government seemed “placatory” in its response to the South African government and the attacks.

Credit:http://leadership.ng/news/429224/south-african-xenophobic-attacks-icc-to-probe-jacob-zuma-zulu-king

e don reach to call this write up "ebook"
btw Thank God it's not Nigeria's kind of probe
and why is Jonathan now being active when he's about to leave office, if he had been this decisive in the past, he wouldn't have lost the election.

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