To Justify Genocide
by Abraham Oviawe
First they said he had amassed weapons of mass destruction. They found nothing. Only stones.
Then they started to publish his previous speeches. Inflammatory they said, evidence of violence. They were reminded that there is a law against inflammatory speeches called sedition, which does not consider such a serious offence (provides for maximum two years imprisonment). They were reminded that the man was under trial by the civil court and the law was already on the situation.
Then they said he sewed uniforms and that makes him enemy combatant. Uniforms. Enemy combatant within your own country in full view of the police and the courts? Enemy combatant without arms. Which provision of the Constitution states that? They were reminded that the young man said his uniformed people were to provide intelligence against marauding herdsmen that are rated by the world as the 4th most dangerous terorrist group in the world, and not to confront any civil or military authority. Their OPC move about in uniforms. Their community vigilantes move about in uniforms.
Then they said, 'they threw stones at armored personnel carrier'. The APC that assaulted a peaceful civil populace on a sleepy Sunday afternoon with frightening noise and presence? The APC that was there in overthrow of the Constitution and civil authorities? Throwing stones is the new justification for genocide?
But that is an admission that:
1. Before the APC went there, there was peace, law and order. There was no report of even an affray or fight between two people.
2. The APC was there without the invitation of the police and NOT to aid the police or any civil authority to restore or maintain law and order. The APC was itself the breach law and order
Section 217 of the Constitution states the conditions for internal deployment of the military. It must be:
1. To quell insurrection - meaning a coup or armed uprising against Government like BOKO HARAM. They found no such thing against Kanu and IPOB. They have proved them to be unarmed and civil.
2. In aid of civil authorities (the State Governor and the police) to restore order - meaning that there must be actual breakdown of law and order AND (a) the military must be invited by a civil authority to come to its aid, and (b) the military must stay behind the civil authority or must be led by it.
3. Some pronouncements of Nigerian courts on military engagement against the civil populace:
- “The President of Nigeria has no powers to call on the Nigerian Armed Forces and to unleash them on peaceful citizens".
(Abdul Aboki, JCA)
-The Court of Appeal in Yussuf v Obasanjo (2005) 18 NWLR (PT 956) 96, held that “It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarized. This is not what the citizenry bargained for in wrestling power from the military in 1999. Conscious step or steps should be taken to civilianize the polity to ensure the survival and sustenance of democracy.”
- The Supreme Court in Buhari v Obasanjo (2005) 2 NWLR (Pt. 910) 24, at 520 – 521, Nsofor, JCA, stated as follows: "There was no state of war in any of those States, no emergency declared therein. On the other hand there was peace and calm and tranquility".
Consider:
- if BOKO HARAM had limited itself to 'hate speeches' and 'inflammatory comments' and sewing uniforms
- if Fulani herdsmen had contented themselves with screaming abuses and then gone back to their cows
would it not have been better for Nigeria?
Consider:
- the excuse of passing by was the same given for the mass murder of hundreds of Shi'ites, a sect of Islam that that is is opposed worldwide by the sect to which popular Islam in Nigeria belongs.
- Python Dance is not on the invitation of any civil authority in the SE.
- Python Dance displaces constitutional authorities in the SE
- Python Dance is a coup against civil authorities in the SE
- PMB has a history of insurrection against Nigeria. He has participated in all coups in this country except the one against himself.
- The insurrection that is seen on the streets of Abia State and the SE is that of the Nigerian military against constitutional authorities in those States.
You that are busy making comments sharing posts and celebrating banditry, wanton bloodshed and genocide, I have shown you the judgment of man condemning your bloodlust, what about the judgment of God in response to innocent blood, crying for vengeance.
First they said he had amassed weapons of mass destruction. They found nothing. Only stones.
Then they started to publish his previous speeches. Inflammatory they said, evidence of violence. They were reminded that there is a law against inflammatory speeches called sedition, which does not consider such a serious offence (provides for maximum two years imprisonment). They were reminded that the man was under trial by the civil court and the law was already on the situation.
Then they said he sewed uniforms and that makes him enemy combatant. Uniforms. Enemy combatant within your own country in full view of the police and the courts? Enemy combatant without arms. Which provision of the Constitution states that? They were reminded that the young man said his uniformed people were to provide intelligence against marauding herdsmen that are rated by the world as the 4th most dangerous terorrist group in the world, and not to confront any civil or military authority. Their OPC move about in uniforms. Their community vigilantes move about in uniforms.
Then they said, 'they threw stones at armored personnel carrier'. The APC that assaulted a peaceful civil populace on a sleepy Sunday afternoon with frightening noise and presence? The APC that was there in overthrow of the Constitution and civil authorities? Throwing stones is the new justification for genocide?
But that is an admission that:
1. Before the APC went there, there was peace, law and order. There was no report of even an affray or fight between two people.
2. The APC was there without the invitation of the police and NOT to aid the police or any civil authority to restore or maintain law and order. The APC was itself the breach law and order
Section 217 of the Constitution states the conditions for internal deployment of the military. It must be:
1. To quell insurrection - meaning a coup or armed uprising against Government like BOKO HARAM. They found no such thing against Kanu and IPOB. They have proved them to be unarmed and civil.
2. In aid of civil authorities (the State Governor and the police) to restore order - meaning that there must be actual breakdown of law and order AND (a) the military must be invited by a civil authority to come to its aid, and (b) the military must stay behind the civil authority or must be led by it.
3. Some pronouncements of Nigerian courts on military engagement against the civil populace:
- “The President of Nigeria has no powers to call on the Nigerian Armed Forces and to unleash them on peaceful citizens".
(Abdul Aboki, JCA)
-The Court of Appeal in Yussuf v Obasanjo (2005) 18 NWLR (PT 956) 96, held that “It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarized. This is not what the citizenry bargained for in wrestling power from the military in 1999. Conscious step or steps should be taken to civilianize the polity to ensure the survival and sustenance of democracy.”
- The Supreme Court in Buhari v Obasanjo (2005) 2 NWLR (Pt. 910) 24, at 520 – 521, Nsofor, JCA, stated as follows: "There was no state of war in any of those States, no emergency declared therein. On the other hand there was peace and calm and tranquility".
Consider:
- if BOKO HARAM had limited itself to 'hate speeches' and 'inflammatory comments' and sewing uniforms
- if Fulani herdsmen had contented themselves with screaming abuses and then gone back to their cows
would it not have been better for Nigeria?
Consider:
- the excuse of passing by was the same given for the mass murder of hundreds of Shi'ites, a sect of Islam that that is is opposed worldwide by the sect to which popular Islam in Nigeria belongs.
- Python Dance is not on the invitation of any civil authority in the SE.
- Python Dance displaces constitutional authorities in the SE
- Python Dance is a coup against civil authorities in the SE
- PMB has a history of insurrection against Nigeria. He has participated in all coups in this country except the one against himself.
- The insurrection that is seen on the streets of Abia State and the SE is that of the Nigerian military against constitutional authorities in those States.
You that are busy making comments sharing posts and celebrating banditry, wanton bloodshed and genocide, I have shown you the judgment of man condemning your bloodlust, what about the judgment of God in response to innocent blood, crying for vengeance.
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