Obasanjo Should Face Trial For Odi Massacre – CPC

THE Congress for Progressive Change on Monday called for the trial of former President Olusegun Obasanjo for genocide over the 1999 invasion of Odi community in Bayelsa State.

Spokesman for the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin, said, sequel to the court description of the 1999 attack on Odi by Nigerian soldiers as genocide, Obasanjo should be arrested and tried before the International Criminal Court.

The CPC catalogued two instances of mistreatment of two communities in the country and concluded that Obasanjo should be tried for the Odi massacre because he “harboured sadistic and malevolent intent” in dealing with the two communities.

A Federal High Court presided over by Justice Lambo Akanbi on February 19, 2013 had ordered the Federal Government to pay N37.6 bn as compensation to the people of Odi over the invasion of their community by armed soldiers during the Obasanjo administration.

However the CPC said the payment of compensation as ordered by the court was inadequate adding that the ex-President should be tried for genocide.

Soldiers on the order of the Obasanjo government invaded Odi on November 20, 1999 and destroyed the community over the killing of 10 policemen by a gang involved in the Niger Delta unrest of the period.

The party’s statement reads, “On 20th November, 1999, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, then President of Nigeria, authorised the invasion and subsequent destruction of Odi community in Bayelsa State by the soldiers of the Nigerian Army.

“After more than 12 years of delayed justice, the Nigerian High Court Judge, Justice Lambo Akanbi, had described the invasion as genocidal, reckless, brutish and gross violation of the rights of the victims to life and ownership of property.

“In addition, the learned Judge ordered the Federal Government of Nigeria to pay N37.6bn as compensation to the victims.

“In 2001, the same PDP-led regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, ordered the invasion of Zaki-Biam, a community in Benue State, by soldiers with the same malevolent intent as the Odi invasion.

“Indeed, in a decided case in July 2007, the Federal Government was ordered to pay N4.8 bn as compensation to the victims.

“Undoubtedly, it is clear from these two decided cases that Obasanjo harboured sadistic and malevolent intent in dealing with the two Nigerian communities.

“In the judgment on the class suit No.FHC/PH/CP/11/2000 on the Odi invasion, Justice Lambo Akanbi ruled that the attack on the people of Odi was genocidal, reckless, brutish and a gross violation of the rights of the victims to life and ownership of property.

“In Article 5(1a) of the statute of the International Criminal Court, genocide is a crime under the jurisdictional purview of the Court.”

 Fashakin went further to explain that Article 6 (a-c) of the same statute explains that “For the purpose of this Statute, ‘genocide’ means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.”

He said that at the time of these infractions, the Nigerian State was not in a state of war with these communities and that the action typified the impunity and excessive show of executive recklessness that he alleged the PDP-led regimes had unleashed on the nation in 13 years.

Fashakin said his party was of the opinion that no amount of monetary compensation could fully assuage the sense of colossal loss of these communities, whose rights to life, he said, were indecently trampled upon by the Obasanjo regime.

He said, “It is equally our belief that, with the establishment of the intent and content of the invasion as genocidal, the course of Justice is best served if the head of the government at the material time, that is, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is formally arraigned before the International Criminal Court for the crime of genocide.

“The wider implication of the arraignment shall be the institution of constitutional order and decency among the ruling elite so that the inalienable rights of the people to personal liberty and justice shall remain sacrosanct.”

March 05, 2013