The All
Progressives Congress has asked the International Criminal Court in The
Hague,
to investigate President Goodluck Jonathan and eight others as regards an audio
file which allegedly captured some Peoples Democratic Party’s leaders giving
orders to a military officer on how to rig the June 21, 2014 governorship
election in Ekiti State in their favour.
Apart from
Jonathan, others named as accused persons in the petition are Minister of State
for Foreign Affairs II, Musiliu Obanikoro; Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose; former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun
State, Iyiola Omisore; and Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex
Badeh,
Others are Chief
of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian
Army’s 32nd Artillery Brigade Commander, Akure, Ondo State, Brig. Gen. Aliyu
Momoh; a member of the Federal House of Representatives, Abdulkareem; and the
Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan.
A copy of the
petition dated March 25, 2015, read in part, “Essentially, the recording
provides evidence of a clearly articulated strategy to militarise Ekiti and
emasculate the opposition parties and their supporters as an approach to
rigging the elections in favour of the PDP.
“The meeting was
attended by top Federal Government officials including two ministers responsible
for the Armed Forces and Police. Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who was then
Minister of State for Defence, and Mr. Jelili Adesiyan, the serving Minister
for Police Affairs, were senior government officials, who actively participated
in the discussions.”
A copy of the
petition sighted by our correspondent on Thursday was said to have been
submitted to the office of the ICC prosecutor, Ms. Fatou Bensouda.
It was submitted
on behalf of the APC by a United Kingdom-based human rights lawyer, Mr. Olukunle
Omojuwa.
An electronic mail
containing an attachment of the petition, which was forwarded to our
correspondent, showed that the same mail was originally sent to the information
desk of the ICC prosecutor on Thursday.
Meanwhile, our
correspondent contacted the Public Information Officer of the ICC, Florence
Olara, on Thursday to confirm if the court had received the APC’s petition,
Olara, who said
she needed to confirm from the concerned department of the court, had yet to
revert to our correspondent as she promised as of the time this report was
filed at about 6pm (Nigerian time) on Thursday.
The petitioner
alleged that the scenario captured in the audio file and the events that
followed had elements of torture, deprivation of physical liberty, persecution
and murder.
APC drags Jonathan, Obanikoro, Fayose others to ICC
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on
Friday, March 27, 2015
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