We’ll hand over B’ Haram suspects to ICC –Presidency

The Federal Government has said it will hand over arrested members of the Boko Haram sect to the International Criminal Court located at The Hague, Netherlands, for prosecution.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, who made the Presidency’s position known in an exclusive interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, however, said the sect members would only be handed over to the ICC based on request.

He explained that the Federal Government had yet to receive such a request from the court.

The Defence Headquarters last week said it had over 1,000 Boko Haram suspects in its custody.

This revelation was made shortly after the Chief Prosecutor of ICC, Fatou Bensouda, said there was a reason to believe that crimes against humanity had been committed in Nigeria by the militant group. She identified the crimes committed by the group as murder and persecution.

Abati said the statement by the ICC vindicated the Federal Government, adding that the statement was a further proof of international support of the government’s efforts at curbing terrorism.

He said, “The Federal Government has not received any request from the ICC for the handing over of suspects. You know how the ICC operates; what it does is that it makes specific requests to the affected country.

“What happened is that the ICC prosecutor made a statement to the effect that the Boko Haram terrorists and insurgents might be found guilty of crimes against humanity but it has not followed it up with making specific requests to the Nigerian government to hand over either persons that have been arrested, who are in detention or who may be arrested in the future.”

When asked whether the government would be willing to hand over the suspects to ICC once the request is made, Abati replied, “Certainly yes.”

The presidential spokesman added that what the ICC statement further showed was that counter-terrorism measure that had been adopted by the present administration was receiving widespread support.

He said, “The ICC prosecutor said there may have been issues about the security agencies being very proactive but that it is very clear that Nigerian security agencies are not targeting civilians.

“That I think is an important statement that needs to be re-echoed. Rather, it is the insurgents themselves that are guilty of crime against humanity. Indeed, the ICC prosecutor went further to commend the Jonathan administration for its counter-terrorism efforts to restore peace, stability to that part of the country.”

Abati said the Nigerian government had shown clearly the capacity to deal with the insurgents and also shown the political will to ensure peace and stability.

He said the fact that there were one or two incidents did not undermine what had been achieved by the joint task forces.

If anything, the presidential spokesman said the insurgents and terrorists were proving to be desperate.

He claimed that the propaganda that the sect members were putting out that they had been able to overwhelm the security agencies was falsehood.

“The reality is that the security agencies have been able to destroy the enclave that they (the insurgents) have created for themselves.

“They have been able to weaken their operations, they have been able to inspire confidence among the populace so much that the young people in the affected areas themselves saw the need to take ownership of the efforts at solidifying peace. These are some of the things that have been achieved,” he said.

Abati added that the Kabiru Turaki-led Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North has been doing a great job.

He said the Federal Government had taken steps to protect the interest of special groups, who might be unnecessarily dragged into the conflict through the information provided by the committee.

He said the idea behind the setting up of the committee was to achieve sustainable peace and stability in the affected parts of the country.

He added, “As for the committee that was set up for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the North-eastern part of the country, that committee is also doing a very good job.

“The point that President Jonathan made in his address when he declared a state of emergency is that the Nigerian government’s approach is not a one-track approach, it is a multi-track approach and that multi-track approach includes taking steps at providing opportunities for dialogue, taking steps at providing opportunities for amnesty, taking steps at creating a machinery to getting to the root of the matter through dialogue and consultation.

“The long term objective of the Nigerian government is to ensure sustainable peace and stability. And there are stakeholders in those areas, who can make solid contributions to peace building process to ensure that a situation like this does not arise and to ensure that key steps are taken to prevent such insurgency on a long term basis.”

When one of our correspondents asked the Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, if security agencies were planning to launch an operation to arrest the Boko Haram leaders and hand them over to the ICC, he said that all arrested terrorists would be processed for prosecution.

He said that it was the mandate of the security operatives to hunt down and arrest all insurgents.

He said, “All arrested insurgents will be processed for prosecution. It is in line with our mandate to arrest and prosecute all terrorists.”

A source in the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in the Federal Ministry of Justice informed one of our correspondents that the Federal Government was committed to its legal obligations to the ICC as stipulated under Article 89 of the Rome Statute of the ICC and Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties.

Nigeria ratified the ICC statute on September 27, 2001, giving the court the jurisdiction over relevant crimes committed in the country.

Being a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, and in line with Article 89(1) and 91 of the Rome Statute and Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties, Nigeria has a legal obligation to cooperate with the ICC and the international community to enforce the warrant of arrest and surrender of persons indicted for crimes against humanity.

The source, who did not wish to be named, was reacting to a recent statement in which the ICC declared that acts of murder and persecution attributed to Boko Haram sect were crimes against humanity.

The ICC, in the statement, disclosed that it was still conducting a preliminary examination of the Boko Haram situation in Nigeria, adding that it would advance to the third phase of the exercise, which involves an evaluation of national attempts to prosecute Boko Haram.

PUNCH