Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Tukur Buratai has been
sued to a US district country.
- Buratai was sued alongside 13 others, for complicity in the torture
and extra judicial killing of pro-Biafrans.
- The torture and killings were allegedly carried out in 2016, during
a pro-Biafra protest.
Ten Biafra supporters have charged Lt General Tukur Buratai to a
United States (U.S.) District Court for the District of Columbia.
The court granted leave to the 10 Biafran plaintiffs to sue Nigeria’s
Chief of Army Staff and 13 others.
According to The Guardian, they were charged for complicity in the
2016 torture and extra-judicial killings under colour of Nigeria law
to retaliate for peaceful Biafran protests against ethnic or religious
oppression.
Brought under the Torture Victims Protection Act and Alien Tort
Claims Act Complaint, the plaintiffs are seeking millions of dollars as
damages to compensate for their grievous losses and suffering.
The suit, John Doe, et al vs. Tukur Yusuf Buratai et al, with Civil
Action No. 1:17-cv-01033, has been assigned to United States
District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, who was appointed by President
William Jefferson ClintonThe court further ruled that the “plaintiffs alleged that identifying
plaintiffs or decedents would expose them, their families and
relatives to an intolerable risk of death or serious bodily injury at
the hands of defendants or the Government of Nigeria.”
Counsel to the plaintiffs, Attorney Bruce Fein of Fein & DelValle
PLLC, and W. Bruce DelValle, said, among others: “This landmark
lawsuit is about justice and the rule of law coming to rescue Igbo,
Biafrans and their political supporters who are persecuted, because
of their Christian religion, ethnicity and political viewpoints since
Nigeria’s independence from its colonial master Great Britain in
October 1960.”
In a similar vein, the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign
State of Biafra (MASSOB), has said its drive for the restoration of
Biafra cannot be deterred by the threat of Lt Gen Buratai.
MASSOB's statement comes on the heels of a threat by the COAS
in which the army chief said that Biafra will not be achieved in his
life time.
Buratai had recently warned that not during his life time will Nigeria
disintegrate.
The COAS had insisted that the agitation for the state of Biafra
would not be successful in the present era and not even in the four
millennia to come.