Biafra Massacre: Falana Writes Open Letter to Buhari
In view of the response from the Nigerian Army that only 5 Biafran Protesters were killed as against the 150 mentioned by the Amnesty International, a human rights activist, Femi Falana (senior Advocate of Nigeria) has written an open letter to the President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an investigative panel to investigate the killings.
Falana wrote the letter on Monday while delivering a paper at the 2016 Law Week of the Jos branch of the Nigeria Bar Association, entitled: “War Against Corruption-Issues and Challenges Confronting the Judiciary.” pointing out that this was human rights matters and cant be swept under the carpet because lives of Nigerians were destroyed.
In his words, “In view of the admission of the Nigerian Army that it killed 5 protesters instead of the 150 alleged by Amnesty International, we are compelling the federal government to setup a panel of inquiry to investigate the killing of MASSOB/IPOB members as well as scores of the Shiites who have been killed by the Army and the police.
“It is curious to note that neither the national leadership of NBA nor any of its 109 branches has deemed it fit to condemn the crimes against humanity committed by the army and the worsening human rights record of the federal government,”,he lamented.
“But the NBA reacted angrily to the nocturnal raid of homes of seven judges who were arrested for alleged corrupt practices last month by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS).
He insisted that, “While not supporting the harassment of judges I did not hesitate in condemning the NBA for engaging in hypocrisy by limiting the defence of human rights to senior members of the legal profession.
“No doubt, there are bad eggs in the judiciary but we must always resist the temptation to described the entire Nigerian judiciary as a corrupt institution.
“Since we have very competent and incorruptible judges our duty is to identify and expose the incompetent ones”, Falana stressed.
