Group Cautions Germany On Extradition Of Ekweremadu’s Attackers

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Saturday, August 24th, 2019

…Says They Would Be Tortured, Dehumanized By Nigerian Govt

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Fearing that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would subject them to torture and dehumanizing conditions under indefinite detention in the underground cells of the department of State Services(DSS), a leading Pro-democracy and Non-Governmental organization body- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has advised the Government of Germany not to extradite the alleged attackers of the erstwhile Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu back to the Nigerian soil.

HURIWA stated that any attempt by the German government to capitulate to the not so well thought out demand by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to repatriate the alleged members of the non-violent self-determination pro-BIAFRA group- the Indigenous peoples of Ibarra (IPOB) back to Nigeria to face uncertainty, would amount to the breach of international human rights laws which absolutely prohibits the extradition of persons to places whereby they may either face the death penalty or be subjected to horrendous cocktails of physical, emotional and psychological torture even as the Rights group also stated that the government of Germany needs to be reminded that the Nigerian President treats Court’s decisions with disdain which means that he will inevitably subject those citizens to extralegal punishments.

HURIWA said it would be writing to the Chancellor of Germany Mrs Angela Merkel to oppose any contemplated extradition of the suspected attackers of the former Nigerian Deputy Senate President who was humiliated by members of IPOB out of a yam Festival in Nuremberg Germany about few days back just as the Rights group said it was necessary to point out to the government of Germany that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has subjected members of the hitherto non-violent civil Rights and self-determination platform- IPOB to series of extralegal measures including the deployment of armed security forces to unleash violence on the members of IPOB in 2017 July including the direct military attack at the Umuahia Abia State home of the Director of Indigenous peoples of BIAFRA even as the government arbitrarily proscribed the civil Rights group as a terrorist organization just for democratically canvassing for self-determination and the peaceful actualization of the Republic of BIAFRA which became defunct after the three year fratricidal civil war in which over 3 million civilians in the then Eastern region of Nigeria were killed or starved to death.

HURIWA reminded Germany that Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch both of USA and UK have documented verifiable evidence of use of torture and widespread allegations of extralegal executions of members of IPOB by the Nigerian Security forces on the command and control of President Muhammadu Buhari.

HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf said it was disturbing that the Nigerian government is mounting pressures on the government of Germany to charge the protesters to court only because they resisted the attendance to the Igbo related event in Germany by the Senator from Igboland Ike Ekweremadu because of their grievances that the people of South East of Nigeria are systematically being killed by armed bandits and armed Fulani herdsmen in their South Eastern region whilst the political elite especially from the South East region do nothing to stop these crimes against humanity.

HURIWA stated that even the alleged victim of attack in Nuremberg Germany Senator Ike Ekweremadu has even forgiven his traducers.

HURIWA stated thus: “We are shocked to read that the alleged attackers of the former deputy senate president, Dr Ike Ekweremadu have been identified by Bavaria state police in Germany going by the hints from an official of the foreign affairs ministry in Abuja who also said that the Bavaria state police have analyzed the attack videos and identified four of the suspected attackers and went ahead to disclose that he cannot reveal their identities for now because the German authorities are now co-operating with us and investigating the attack.”

The incident it would be recalled had received varying degrees of reactions with some generally condemning the action whilst others have tasked political elite in Nigeria to view the phenomenon as the last warning by oppressed Nigerians who may no longer suffer and smile.

Weighing in on the situation, the leader of the group, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who almost got killed by soldiers in 2017 in his reaction opined that Ekweremadu’s case was a warning to all Igbo leaders in the south-east zone.

HURIWA has however stated categorically that the government of Germany should abide by global best practices and avoid repatriating IPOB members to Nigeria under the current suffocating dictatorship because of compelling circumstances in this instance which in international law is said to constitute a reason for States to usually accept the risk of an adverse response and attempt to gain jurisdiction over fugitives through the operation of their extradition treaties. While most extradition treaties are bilateral, multilateral treaty conventions have recently emerged.

HURIWA stated that going through a plethora of legal studies it has however become clear that there are other limitations guiding a State’s discretion to expel aliens include multilateral refugee conventions, regional human rights conventions, and thematic human rights instruments.

HURIWA recalled that “International human rights law is derived from a network of United Nations resolutions, multilateral treaties, decisions of treaty-based organizations, and customary international law. Treaty-based human rights organizations ‘ have played an important role in imposing new limits on States’ discretion to extradite persons to other States. These controls have been imposed in the absence of explicit discretionary limits in the respective extradition treaties.

This “incorporation” of “the law of extradition” into these treaties largely originated from decisions of treaty-based organizations where individual petitioners exercised their rights under the respective treaty and protocol provisions to petition those organizations for relief from victimization.”