There may also have been pockets of reprisal killing of their members by the victims’ groups owing to institutionalized culture of impunity and selective application of law and criminal sanctions in Nigeria.
Sir, these non-war or peacetime killings grossly and gravely violate Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution particularly the citizens’ collective and individual rights to life and protectable and safe living contained in Sections 14 (2) (b) and 33 of the Constitution.
Regionally and internationally, they constitute grave violation of Nigeria’s sacred obligations to regional and international human rights treaties or conventions including the AU Charter on Human & Peoples Rights of 1981 and the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and the Economic, Social & Cultural Rights of 1976, ratified by Nigeria in 1983 and 1993 respectively.
They also gravely breach the Principles & Purposes of the United Nations: saving future generations from war, reaffirming human rights and establishing equal rights for all persons; in addition to promoting justice, freedom, and social progress for the peoples of all of its member States.
Sir, while it is constitutionally, regionally and internationally indisputable that members of the Armed Forces of any member-State of AU and UN such as Nigeria are charged with the responsibilities or mandates of rendering defensive services domestically in extreme emergencies such as during internal armed conflict in their country or any part thereof including counterinsurgency operations against Boko Haram terrorism in Northeast Nigeria inclusive.
But those exercising such mandates must when called upon or commanded, render the account of such mandates and take full responsibility for their illegalities and atrocities no matter how long it takes.
As you may professorially be aware or unaware Sir, there are no defenses of impunity and immunity for the perpetrators in the commission of heinous crimes or perpetration of gross abuses of human rights in the course of their securitization or professional duties and mandates.
This is more so when such defenses are nationally, regionally and internationally outlawed and made inexcusable.
These also explain why the Third Protocol to the Geneva Conventions or Laws of Armed Conflict of 1949 was specifically enacted in 1977 to checkmate the conducts of the combatants of the protagonist and antagonist sides as they relate to treatments of civilian populations or noncombatants including women, children and IDPs in widespread or clustered internal armed conflict (s).
The Doctrine of Rules of Engagement and its principles of use of force, self-defense and exclusion from attacks of non-military necessity and places of worship and religious symbols during armed conflicts and their zones was also put in place.
Constitutionally, regionally and internationally speaking Sir, members of the Nigerian Armed Forces particularly the Army are totally prohibited from involvement in policing or management of peaceful assemblies including social and religious protests and processions in Nigeria or any part thereof.
Their protective military and defensive interventions or involvements in democratic dispensation are only strict required during munity, insurrection, internal armed struggle or conflict and externally and territorially threatened inter State armed conflict or natural hazard-induced State of emergency.
Therefore, Sir, Nigerian Army’s supplementary policing roles in the internal security of Nigeria under civil authority or rule or democratic dispensation must not be misconstrued and have nothing whatsoever to do with its recent violent policing or crackdown on religious faithful peacefully engaging in open street religious processions or a group of disenchanted and aggrieved citizens or social voices showing their grievances through church vigils, clustered singing and praises or engaging in ghost and open street protests or roadside picketing in the form of nonviolent socio-political self-determination agitation.
It must be clearly stated Sir that the Nigeria Police Force, equipped with modern crowd control kits and equipment other than lethal weaponry are constitutionally, regionally and internationally charged with the responsibilities of protecting and policing civil assemblies in Nigeria or any part thereof, which must be discharged within the confines of international best practices or modern crowd control methods.
Nigeria’s constitutional obligations to its citizens in non-war situation or peacetime:
Sir, Nigeria is not a zoo or an animal kingdom where anarchy and survival of the fittest reign, but an independent country governed by a set of rules under its 1999 Constitution with clearly spelt out and written constitutional dos and don’ts for its 17,500 appointed and elected public office holders including its 1,625 State and Federal elected public office holders.
These dos and don’ts are contained in Sections 13 (demands inexcusable adherence by public office holders to the provisions of Chapters Two and Four and other provisions of the Constitution) and 14 (2b)(provision of security and welfare by public office holders to the citizens as well as their protection and safe living) of its fundamental objectives and directive principle of State policy as well as its Chapter Four or Sections 33-46 (i.e. rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty, fair hearing and fair trial, peaceful assembly, association and expression, right against indiscriminate arrest and long detention without trial and rights to freedom of movement, thought, conscience and religion/worship, etc.).
By Section 33 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, Sir, no citizen shall be killed arbitrarily except in extreme circumstances such as if he or she is an active participant in armed struggle or violent conflict, insurrection or munity.
That is to say Sir that where Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution ends in preserving, providing, protecting, promoting and advancing these citizens’ constitutional liberties and human rights including pursuit of happiness; the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights begins.
Please see Nigeria’s Supreme Court decision in Gen Sani Abacha & Ors v. Chief Gani Fawehinmi (2000) 4 FWLR 533.
