By: Harun Elbinawi
My attention was drawn to the above-named news report that appeared in the Nigerian daily of Vanguard Newspaper and it was in reaction to the well-articulated Letter of the Solicitors of IMN that was signed by its leading Counsel Femi Falana (SAN) to the Attorney-General of Kaduna state to commence the prosecution of the Soldiers that massacred at least 347 defenseless and unarmed Nigerians (as stated by officials of the Kaduna state government) in the Zaria massacre.
After the brutal massacre of defenseless civilians that included 100s of women and children, the masterminds and executors of the massacre sponsored faceless groups and individuals to justify the massacre and mislead the Nigerian public as what truly happened. The new group that acted as a front for them in challenging the Letter of Chief Femi Falana (SAN) is "Arewa Hope Foundation". This faceless group do not have any office location in anywhere in Nigeria and they do not have any online address or website that will present records of their past activities as a "Foundation". Gen Buratai and his gang of mass-murderers only created " Arewa Hope Foundation" to write a rejoinder to Falana's Letter. I am absolutely confident and I assure Nigerians that after this rejoinder, Nigerians will never hear the name "Arewa Hope Foundation" again just like Nigerians have not heard of all the other faceless groups that were sponsored by Buratai and his gang of mass-murderers.
But for the sake of academic discuss and clarification I decided to write this piece to debunk the points raised by this faceless group. From the press conference of the group, the group "faulted what it described as attempt by counsel to the Shiite sect, Femi Falana, to cast aspersions on the composition and work of the Kaduna State Commission of Inquiry set up by the state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, to probe into the Army, Shiite Clash". Governor Nasir Elrufai does not have the locusstandi to establish any commission to probe the ZariaMassacre as he played active role in the massacre by burying the bodies of the victims in a single mass grave and from credible sources some of the victims were buried alive, and he also quickly destroyed all the physical evidences of the massacre and that constituted a war crime according to the Rome Status. The same Gov Elrufai immediately after the inhuman massacre in a state-wide address indicted IMN and its leader His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky. Then how can the same Elrufai instituted a kangaroo commission to probe the massacre?
To clarify more on the heinous atrocities committed by Gov Elrufai in ZariaMassacre. Let's assume a group of people connived and murdered hundreds of Nigerians and they then contacted another person to help them dispose of the bodies of which majority of the victims were not even certify dead by any medical personnel. That person organized a group of grave-diggers and buried all the victims in a single mass grave. Is this person not a criminal who aided and abated the initial criminals who murdered hundreds of Nigerian civilians and burnt some of them alive? This is the position of Gov Elrufai and how can this same man be a Judge of the heinous crime that was undoubtedly a war crime that he himself was an active accomplice?
From the report the leader of the faceless group one Muhammadu Ibrahim "wondered why Falana would be calling for the prosecution of soldiers involved in the clash when the report of the panel is yet to be released". Femi Falana is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and by his action has acted within the confines of the laws of the Nigerian state. There is no law in Nigeria that bars Falana from calling for the prosecution of the soldiers who murdered hundreds of Nigerians and dumped their dead bodies in mass graves. IMN rightly decided to boycott the kangaroo commission due to the clearly stated reasons by Falana in his Letter, IMN is not waiting for any report of the kangaroo commission.
The report of the group states that "Ibrahim expressed concern that no one seems to be talking about justice for families of slain and injured personnel of the Nigerian Army". Nigerians do not show concern for that because they known that Buratai & Elrufai are lying when they claimed that IMN members killed a soldier. When Buratai made his presentation to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the casualties of the Zaria massacre, he told Nigerians that " only 7 Shiites were killed and 10 injured ". Buratai never mentioned any deaths or injuries of Nigerian army personnel. The claims of death and injured soldiers was an after thought of the gang of mass-murderers of the Zaria massacre.
The group claimed that "Mr Falana and his client were saving face as they could not have face the revelations made about the atrocities, heinous crimes and the violent reputation of their sect.” IMN was not the entity that killed 1000+ defenseless and unarmed Nigerian civilians and dumped them in mass grave, this heinous and violent crimes and atrocities was perpetrated by the Nigerian army and the whole world is aware of that! So words such as " heinous", "crimes" and "atrocities" should be attributed to the Nigerian army who shot and bombed civilians during the inhuman massacre.
The faceless group also raised the same fictitious "Iranian $100 million support to IMN", the same claim that Buratai made in fraudulently accusing Iran of been behind his recent corruption allegations of diverting funds meant to fight the BokoHaram insurgency and bought choice properties in Nigeria and Dubai, UAE. I think it is better to ask Buratai and his gang of mass-murderers how much did the Saudi regime paid them after they slaughtered 1000 Shia Muslims in Nigeria and dumped their dead bodies in mass grave? Nigerians are asking how much were they paid to massacre defenseless and unarmed Nigerians to serve a foreign imperialist agenda that has the Saudi regime as a front?
source : abna24
