A group, Concerned Citizens of Nigeria, has condemned the planned meeting of President Muhammadu Buhari with the leadership of the International Criminal Court, ICC, at The Hague.
The group made the condemnation in a letter addressed to the President of the ICC, Chile Eboe-Osuji, and signed by Mr. Yinka Odumakin.
According to the group, it was wrong for Buhari to have any engagement with the ICC in view of the numerous petitions pending against him at the court.
The group said such an engagement would compromise the cause of justice.
The group said there were, at present, 131 petitions against Buhari over his alleged role and complicity in the killings by Fulani herdsmen “under the auspices of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, with President Buhari as their grand Patron.”
It added that there were other petitions from credible victims, including the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), against the Nigeria Army, with President Buhari, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, for crime against humanity wherein President Buhari is accused of ordering the massacre of unarmed IPOB agitators.
The Concerned Citizens of Nigeria argued that with the number of petitions against Buhari at the ICC, it would be against the rule of natural justice and international best practices for “you as a Court of Justice, to be seen dinning with a suspect under investigation by your Pretrial Chambers.”
It said dining with Buhari would be strange and suggestive of a serious attempt at compromising justice and defeating the noble goal of the international community, in establishing a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC), to try grave crimes of international concern.
The group argued further that the planned visit of “a suspect with so much blood on his hands to the hallowed Chambers of the ICC” left much to be desired.
It called on the President of the ICC, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the UN Security Council and the President of the Assembly of States of the ICC, to step into the ongoing “embarrasing hanky panky going on between the ICC management and President Buhari, that could bring the ICC into great disrepute.”
