Help us identify mass grave allegedly dug by Nigerian army - Presidential panel tells Amnesty International

macfranc007 September 26, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Kess Ewubare

- The presidential panel set up to review compliance of the military with human rights urges Amnesty International to appear before its subsequent sittings in Kaduna, Lagos and Enugu

- Member of the panel, Hauwal Ibrahim, calls on the rights body to assist in identifying the mass graves it accused the Nigerian military of burying people

Igbo group, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) file a suit against Buhari, Buratai and other individuals over the ongoing Operation Python Dance II in the southeast

The Amnesty International has been criticised by the presidential panel set up to review compliance of the military with human rights obligations for failing to appear before its sitting to prove allegations it made against the Nigerian army on human rights abuses.

The AI had failed to honour an invitation of the panel’s sitting in Maiduguri, where it was supposed to substantiate its allegations of human rights abuses against the Nigerian army, Guardian reports.

The rights body was also absent at the opening session of the committee in Port Harcourt on Monday, September 25.

Chairman of the panel, Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill, urged the AI to make itself available at the panel’s subsequent sittings in Kaduna, Lagos and Enugu.

Similarly, another member of the panel, Professor Hauwal Ibrahim, called on the AI to assist the panel identity the mass graves it accused the Nigerian military of burying the remains of victims of alleged human rights abuse.

According to Vanguard, she said the panel in Maiduguri could not trace any mass grave which the rights body alleged some victims were buried in.

“In Maiduguri for example, we are coming from there that is why I am using that place. The chunk of the people we spoke to in Maiduguri are victims.

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We wanted more of the victims. We did not want to entertain lawyers as much but rather more of the victims. There was allegation of mass grave by amnesty international but nobody could show us this, this is one of the difficulties we had with amnesty international.

We went to the military cemetery we could not see the mass grave. So far we have only one side of the narrative, so we hope amnesty will come to prove its allegations,” she said.

Meanwhile, an Igbo group, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) said it has taken a step to file a suit against President Muhammadu Buhari; the chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai and some other individuals over the ongoing Operation Python Dance II in the southeast.

The group said it has filed a petition before the International Criminal Court at the Hague over human rights abuses by the Nigerian army against members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). ADF said the military exercise in the region was aimed ethnic cleaning of the people of Igbo extraction.

In the video below, NAIJ.com TV asked some Nigerians if they want the operation python dance in southeast be canceled