Saturday Sun gathered that the nation’s security high command took the decision to put law enforcement agencies in Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe and Bauchi states on red alert following widespread local and international condemnation of the heavy civilian casualty recorded in the clash that claimed many lives. “Intelligence reports coming in indicate that the condemnations of the military action in Baga may serve as a moral booster to the Boko Haram terrorists to launch simultaneous and coordinated devastating attacks in the six identified states in the coming days.
This is the basis for the directive to all armed commands in the states to beef up their intelligence gathering and be ready for rapid response. In essence, they were all put on red alert,” a source involved in the coordination of the Federal Government anti-terrorism efforts in Abuja disclosed. The officer said some of the military formations in the concerned states have “been reinforced with more personnel and their armoury beefed up in the coming days because of the advancement noticed in the firepower and weapons used by the insurgents so that they can respond appropriately to any incursion.”
This development, it was gathered, is hinged on the return and regrouping of islamist militants earlier dispersed in northern Mali through the aerial bombardments of their strongholds by French troops. “Since the French left Mali a few weeks ago, the rebels in the North of the country have again been regrouping to wreak havoc in countries that participated in the war against the rebels in Mali. An instance of that was what we saw in the massive bombing of French embassy in Tripoli this week.
The popular belief is that they have moved into some northern states with a lot of the sophisticated weapons taken out of Libya,” the source added. Meanwhile, there are indications that a group of northern leaders have concluded plans to drag President Goodluck Jonathan and other senior officials of his administration before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crime offences.
One of the leaders, who confirmed the development to Saturday Sun, said: “While we would not condone the excesses of the Boko Haram sect, we condemn strongly the senseless killing of innocent women and children in Baga and to forestall future occurrence of things like this, some of us have decided to file a petition at the ICC for war crime charges against the president and some of his lieutenants.
Former President Obasanjo committed the same crime in Odi, Bayelsa and Zaki Biam in Benue State and went free. We won’t allow this to go without someone being brought to book, either now or in the nearest future.” Another northern leader and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) chieftain, Senator JKN Waku, told Saturday Sun he is aware of such move and will support the petitioners. According to him, “we value every single life, but what right has President Jonathan to encourage this kind of massacre of villagers, who are not Boko Haram members.
Why didn’t the president order JTF to do the same thing in Bayelsa when MEND killed 12 JTF men at a go? This is surely a calculated attack on the North and someone must be made to account for these crimes some day very soon.” Also speaking on the same issue, ACF spokesman, Anthony Sani, said the killing in Baga is an “unsavoury incident,” adding that the pro-North group will wait to get the outcome of investigations launched “to unveil the facts behind the killing.” At the international level, Washington-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) told Saturday Sun it has commenced investigations into the allegations of massacre in Baga.
According to the organisation’s researcher on Nigeria, Eric Guttschuss, “Human Rights Watch is investigating allegations of extra judicial killings by soldiers in Baga, Borno State in Nigeria. The outcome of our findings will determine our line of action.” He spoke in a telephone interview with Saturday Sun from his head office in Washington DC, USA. In the same vein, an official of the ICC has said that the alleged killing of women and children in Baga has made it imperative for the world body to review its preliminary report on its initial examination of developments in Nigeria.
The ICC had, in its 2012 report, relied largely on findings by the HRW. The official said: “The preliminary examination of a situation may be initiated by: (a) a decision of the Prosecutor, taking into consideration information on crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court, including information sent by individuals or groups, states, intergovernmental or non-governmental organisations; (b) a referral from a State Party or the United Nations (“UN”) Security Council; or (c) a declaration pursuant to article 12(3) of the Statute by a State which is not a Party to the Statute.”
While noting that so far more than 15 petitions on war crimes had been received from Nigeria, the ICC said: “During the reporting period, the OTP (Office of the Prosecutor) has maintained and developed contacts with senders of article 15 communications, academics and researchers specialised on Nigeria, and Nigerian NGOs as well as international human rights NGOs.”
While declaring that “Boko Haram has committed the following acts constituting crimes against humanity: (i) murder under article 7(1)(a) and (ii) persecution under article 7(1) (h) of the Statute,” the ICC submitted: “Although allegations against Nigerian security forces in the context of their operations against Boko Haram may reflect serious human rights violations, the information available at this stage does not permit a finding of a reasonable basis to believe that such acts were committed pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to attack the civilian population.
There is also currently no reasonable basis to believe that the confrontations between the security forces and Boko Haram amount to an armed conflict.” The body, however, stressed: “These initial assessments may be revisited in the light of new facts or evidence.” The ICC official added: “If the allegations that women and children massacred in Baga are therefore, confirmed, that may constitute new facts or evidence to establish crimes against humanity against some government officials and security commanders.”
Source: Sun News
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