I am sure some people are shocked? Well, don't be surprised. As bad as it sounds, you are not allowed to kill prisoners of war who surrender. That is international law - Geneva Conventions
Why We’re Helping Nigeria Rehabilitate Repentant Terrorists – US
The United States Government says it is assisting Nigeria in rehabilitating repentant terrorists as part of a broader joint Nigeria and US strategy to counter violent extremism.
The US Embassy to Nigeria said this in response to an email by Saturday PUNCH on Friday.
It said it was assisting Nigeria through the International Organisation for Migration.
The email read in part, “The US government assists the Government of Nigeria’s Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration programme through the International Organisation for Migration – which supports Nigeria’s Operation Safe Corridor programme to carry out DDRR of repentant and eligible ex-combatants who were formerly affiliated with a terrorist organisation.”
It said the 601 repentant terrorists who recently graduated from Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe State had not yet been re-integrated into society.
The US said the repentant terrorists would be reintegrated in batches in the near future.
The email further read, “According to our understanding, 601 individuals who were formerly affiliated with a terrorist organisation recently graduated from Operation Safe Corridor last month following successful completion of the de-radicalisation and rehabilitation programme in Gombe Camp.
“We understand that these men have not been released to communities yet and are still awaiting transfer to a rehabilitation centre in Maiduguri. They are to be transferred in batches in the very near future.
“The United States has supported Nigeria’s efforts toward effective disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration of former affiliates as an important element of the broader joint Nigerian and US strategy to counter violent extremism.”
A large section of Nigerians had condemned the plan of the Federal Government to reintegrate repentant terrorists into society while millions of victims of terrorism remain displaced. The Borno State Commissioner for Information, Babakura Jatau, had told Sunday PUNCH in July that only about 10 per cent of the repentant terrorists were actually fighters while the rest were either children or accomplices.
US still selling weapons to Nigeria despite rights abuse –Amnesty
Meanwhile, rights group, Amnesty International, says the US Government has continued to sell weapons to Nigeria despite the rights abuses being perpetrated by the Nigerian military.
The Deputy Director for Advocacy and Government Relations for Amnesty International USA, Adotei Akwei, said this in an email interview with The PUNCH.
In January 2019, Akwei had written a letter to the foreign relations committees in the US Congress calling for the implementation of the Leahy Law in Nigeria due to the high number of human rights abuses by the Nigerian military.
The Leahy Law is an American human rights law that prohibits the US Department of State and Department of Defence from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity.
However, Akwei told The PUNCH that one year after Amnesty wrote the letter, the US authorities had continued to sell weapons to Nigeria in contravention of the Leahy Law.
He said the government of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), had failed to address human rights violations.
Responding to a question, he said, “The short answer is no, we have not seen the Buhari government implement any form of credible accountability for human rights violations committed by the Nigerian security forces since we sent our letter and we have not seen the USG (US Government) take the necessary action of enforcing the Leahy Law in response to the continued impunity being enjoyed by the Nigerian security forces.”
Akwei had in a letter signed on behalf of Amnesty said the Nigerian military was fond of attacking unarmed civilians.
Tinubuadvocate: Jonathan laid a bad precedence. There's no rational explanation for their action according to our constitution a killer shouldn't be pardoned .
Study the Geneva Conventions. Those killers are classified as prisoners of war.
Amnesty video seems to show Nigeria troops slitting Boko Haram suspects' throats
By Tim Cocks AUGUST 5, 2014
LAGOS (Reuters) - Footage obtained by human rights group Amnesty International and released on Tuesday appears to show Nigerian soldiers slitting the throats of Boko Haram suspects and dumping their bodies in a mass grave.
Nigeria’s military is battling an increasingly vicious Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram, which wants to carve an Islamic state out of religiously mixed Nigeria. But its forces frequently come repeatedly under fire for human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings they usually deny.
It was not possible to independently verify the video, which also includes images of suspects being pulled off the back of trucks and beaten by soldiers and allied civilian militias.
Amnesty said the extrajudicial killings occurred shortly after Boko Haram’s attack on a detention center in Giwa Barracks, in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, on March 14.
Nigerian Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade, who normally bristles at suggestions of abuses by Nigerian soldiers, said in at statement that “the military authorities view these grave allegations very seriously.
“Much as the scenes depicted in this video are alien to our operations and doctrines, it has to be investigated to ensure that such practices have not crept, surreptitiously, into the system,” Olukolade said.
He emphasized that such behavior would be counter to the training Nigerian troops are given.
“That level of barbarism and impunity has no place in the Nigerian military. Respect for the sanctity of life is always boldly emphasized in our doctrinal training,” he said.
In the most gruesome of the videos, suspects are kept to one side while graves are dug. Then the grave is shown half-full of bodies. A half-naked man is pulled from a truck and held down while a man in military uniform slices his neck open with a combat knife, hurling his body into the pit. The scene is repeated with another suspect on the same bloodied patch at the edge of grave.
The footage comes a week after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video of his fighters beheading a Nigerian soldier -- a standard practice for the militants. Amnesty’s report also shows the aftermath of a Boko Haram attack on a village that the rights group said had killed 100 people.
Amnesty said 4,000 people had been killed in the conflict this year.
A military operation since May last year has aimed to crush the rebels. But they have proved remarkably resilient and have struck back in attacks that increasingly target the civilian population, killing hundreds.
“This shocking new evidence is further proof of the appalling crimes being committed with abandon by all sides in the conflict ... what does it say when members of the military carry out such unspeakable acts and capture the images on film?” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary general.
“Numerous testimonies we have gathered suggest that extrajudicial executions are, in fact, regularly carried out by the Nigerian military,” she added.
Rights groups argue that such acts by the military are not only wrong but counter-productive, as they fuel much of the anger that has helped drive the insurgency over the past five years. It is also a primary reason cited by U.S. and British forces for not giving Nigeria more counter-insurgency support.
Boko Haram was a largely non-violent clerical movement against Western culture until the killing of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, in police custody transformed it into a full- scale armed rebellion.
Olukolade said forensic experts would study the footage “in order to ascertain the veracity of the claims with a view to identifying those behind such acts. This will ... stimulate necessary legal action against any personnel or anyone found culpable in accordance with the provisions of the law.”
Tinubuadvocate: Jonathan laid a bad precedence. There's no rational explanation for their action according to our constitution a killer shouldn't be pardoned .
[/s] Jonathan meant them well though the north used these BH terrorists(they have now added bandits and Fulani militias to the list) to fight the then government. Mind you, former president Jonathan never show any avid affection and support to the BH religious leaning/ fanaticism and radicalism as members of this govt have done even before they enter government.So be guided with your warped delusional allegation.
Racoon: [s][/s] Jonathan meant them well though the north used these BH terrorists(they have now added bandits and Fulani militias to the list) to fight the then government. Mind you, former president Jonathan never show any avid affection and support to the BH religious fanaticism and radicalism as members of this govt have done even they enter government.So be guided with your warped delusional allegation.
But he still released them from prison and stopped the army from killing them. He even set up a committee for amnesty for Boko Haram fighters.
Stop blabbing call a spade a spade Jonathan is bad publicservant.
Racoon: [s][/s] Jonathan meant them well though the north used these BH terrorists(they have now added bandits and Fulani militias to the list) to fight the then government. Mind you, former president Jonathan never show any avid affection and support to the BH religious leaning/ fanaticism and radicalism as members of this govt have done even they enter government.So be guided with your warped delusional allegation.
"Maj.Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, has criticised the subsequent military offensive against the Boko Haram Islamic sect....The federal government's action was a gross injustice against the north....." (A fight against BH terrorists is a fight against the north." ) -Buhari. https://allafrica.com/stories/201306030384.html
"The sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims, has condemned the military crackdown against the Islamist Boko Haram sect. "We cannot solve violence with violence," -Mohammed Sa'ad Abubakar. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14342863
"..For instance, in response to a question about Osama bin Laden’s “killing of innocent unbelievers,” Pantami said although he conceded that Bin Laden was liable to err because he was human, “I still consider him as a better Muslim than myself” and pointed out that “We are all happy whenever unbelievers are being killed, but the Sharia does not allow us to kill them without a reason.” You can’t defend that.https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2021/04/pantami-is-my-friend-but-he-cant-be.html m=1#.YHpfhDGSfwg.twitter
Tinubuadvocate: Tell us the agitation of Geneva conventions
I am sure you can read and google is your friend.
In not too many words, those killers are classified as prisoners of war and have rights. If you kill them when they surrender without proper judicial process, you would be committing a serious crime - War Crimes. And prisoner swap, amnesty has been used by all armies of the world from the first world war until date to end wars.
I don't support it and would have wished they were all killed but once they surrender, your hands are tied.
President Goodluck Jonathan has declared amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect.
Minister of Youth Development, Boni Haruna, disclosed this on Thursday at a special event, “A day with young leaders of Nigeria”, to mark the 15th anniversary of the fourth republic.
Jonathan attended the event, which was held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Haruna said: “President Goodluck Jonathan has declared amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect. A series of integration programmes have been lined up for the members of the sect who would surrender their arms and embrace peace.
“Let me use this opportunity on behalf of the federal government to call on the members of the Boko Haram sect to embrace the government’s gesture and key into amnesty programme.”
Haruna was once governor of Adamawa, one of the states currently affected by the insurgency.
His pronouncement appears to be a further explanation of the presidential broadcast earlier in the day.
Jonathan had, in his speech, promised to pursue “all options” to end the insurgency ─ announcing that the doors of his government were open to dialogue.
He also spoke about “de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and re-integration into the broader society”.
amc: I am sure some people are shocked? Well, don't be surprised. As bad as it sounds, you are not allowed to kill prisoners of war who surrender. That is international law - Geneva Conventions
IPOB members are arrested, transferred to the north and killed. Some of them know nothing about IPOB or Biafra struggles.
Some are tied up and shot in the cells. Are these people different kind of prisoners?
More Boko Haram members have been killed by the Nigerian army than ESN/Unknown Gunmen. I don't know where IPOB members have been transferred to the North and killed. You guys can fool your followers and it doesn't add any value to your agitation. They are pure lies to deceive the gullible.
If any IPOB member surrender to the authorities, they will be treated as a prisoner of war.
Nigeria convicts 205 Boko Haram suspects in mass trials
By Reuters Staff FEBRUARY 19, 201810:54 PMUPDATED 3 YEARS AGO
ABUJA (Reuters) - More than 200 people have been convicted in Nigeria on charges related to their involvement with militant Islamist group Boko Haram, the justice ministry said on Monday.
The convictions of 205 people in mass trials mark the conclusion of the second stage of the country’s biggest legal challenge to Boko Haram, which began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.
“Most of them were convicted for professing to belong to the terrorist group, (or) concealing information about the group which they knew or believe to be of material assistance that could lead to the arrest, prosecution or conviction of Boko Haram members,” the justice ministry said in a statement.
Jail terms ranged from three to 60 years, said the ministry.
It also said a total of 526 people allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram had been released for rehabilitation during the second stage, and said 73 cases had been adjourned.
More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes since the insurgency began.
Humanitarian groups have criticized the Nigerian authorities’ handling of some of those detained for infringing on the suspects’ rights.
Some whose cases were heard last week at a detention center in central Nigeria had been held without trial since 2010, according to the justice ministry, which added that some had been released for lack of evidence against them.
In October, the ministry said 45 people suspected of Boko Haram links had been convicted and jailed. A further 468 suspects were discharged and 28 suspects were remanded for trial in Abuja or Minna.
No sensible person takes serously a propaganda from this govt. During Gej admin, we saw a live coverage of court proceedings but no single terrorist has been charged to court since buhari became president.
No sensible person takes serously a propaganda from this govt. During Gej admin, we saw a live coverage of court proceedings but no single terrorist has been charged to court since buhari became president.
Nigeria convicts 205 Boko Haram suspects in mass trials
By Reuters Staff FEBRUARY 19, 201810:54 PMUPDATED 3 YEARS AGO
ABUJA (Reuters) - More than 200 people have been convicted in Nigeria on charges related to their involvement with militant Islamist group Boko Haram, the justice ministry said on Monday.
The convictions of 205 people in mass trials mark the conclusion of the second stage of the country’s biggest legal challenge to Boko Haram, which began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.
“Most of them were convicted for professing to belong to the terrorist group, (or) concealing information about the group which they knew or believe to be of material assistance that could lead to the arrest, prosecution or conviction of Boko Haram members,” the justice ministry said in a statement.
Jail terms ranged from three to 60 years, said the ministry.
It also said a total of 526 people allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram had been released for rehabilitation during the second stage, and said 73 cases had been adjourned.
More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes since the insurgency began.
Humanitarian groups have criticized the Nigerian authorities’ handling of some of those detained for infringing on the suspects’ rights.
Some whose cases were heard last week at a detention center in central Nigeria had been held without trial since 2010, according to the justice ministry, which added that some had been released for lack of evidence against them.
In October, the ministry said 45 people suspected of Boko Haram links had been convicted and jailed. A further 468 suspects were discharged and 28 suspects were remanded for trial in Abuja or Minna.
I'm not interested in your junks. Truth is, all terrorists that were jailed by Gej have all been released by buhari. Have you ever seen one terrorist prosecuted by buhari?
This information is coming from the ministry of justice headed by Malami. Everyone is aware of Malami's antecedent. The same malami that is protecting the identities of terrorist sponsors arrested in Dubai. He hasn't deemed bit fit to charge them to court for prosecution several months after.
amc: I am sure some people are shocked? Well, don't be surprised. As bad as it sounds, you are not allowed to kill prisoners of war who surrender. That is international law - Geneva Conventions
I'm not interested in your junks. Truth is, all terrorists that were jailed by Gej have all been released by buhari. Have you ever seen one terrorist prosecuted by buhari?
Ndo, I know you are a bit upset. The truth hurts.
GEJ granted amnesty to Boko Haram terrorists. GEJ paid $500m to Boko Haram middlemen. And nobody has heard of those you claim he jailed.
Nigeria convicts 205 Boko Haram suspects in mass trials
By Reuters Staff FEBRUARY 19, 201810:54 PMUPDATED 3 YEARS AGO
ABUJA (Reuters) - More than 200 people have been convicted in Nigeria on charges related to their involvement with militant Islamist group Boko Haram, the justice ministry said on Monday.
The convictions of 205 people in mass trials mark the conclusion of the second stage of the country’s biggest legal challenge to Boko Haram, which began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.
“Most of them were convicted for professing to belong to the terrorist group, (or) concealing information about the group which they knew or believe to be of material assistance that could lead to the arrest, prosecution or conviction of Boko Haram members,” the justice ministry said in a statement.
Jail terms ranged from three to 60 years, said the ministry.
It also said a total of 526 people allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram had been released for rehabilitation during the second stage, and said 73 cases had been adjourned.
More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes since the insurgency began.
Humanitarian groups have criticized the Nigerian authorities’ handling of some of those detained for infringing on the suspects’ rights.
Some whose cases were heard last week at a detention center in central Nigeria had been held without trial since 2010, according to the justice ministry, which added that some had been released for lack of evidence against them.
In October, the ministry said 45 people suspected of Boko Haram links had been convicted and jailed. A further 468 suspects were discharged and 28 suspects were remanded for trial in Abuja or Minna.