Our Letter To HRW Executive Director, Tirana Hassan Since July 5, 2023

Address: 41, Miss Elems Street, Onitsha Anambra State, Nigeria Wednesday, 5th July 2023 Human Rights Watch [email protected] or [email protected] or Including Victims Of Gross Rights Abuses/Violations Belt Regions Have Been Denied Services And Advocacy Benefi Since 2015 Calling On Human Rights Watch To Fully Return To Nigeria And Run All Advocacy Activities With Focus On Nigeria’s Hotbed Of Gross Righ Belt Regions So As To Save Them From Raging Security Forces d Other Internationally Prohibited Conducts Or Acts The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is Nigeria’s leading human rights, security and safety advocacy Organization since 2008 and we are led by criminologists, lawyers, graduates of security studies, peace studies and conflict resolution, etc. We through research, investigation, documentation and publications their perpetrators and seek for accountability and end of impunity and repeat orporate in Nigeria since 2008 and had in August 2010 partnered with HRW in its Everyone’s on the Game: Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by Nigeria Police Force’. Executive Director to inform with deepest concern that services and advocacy to victims and potential victims of gross human rights abuses and violations in Nigeria d non state actor terrorism have been denied and discriminated agai Belt Regions particularly 2015. The advocacy services and benefits’ denials have traced to the appointment in 2013 of Ms Mausi Segun as ‘Researcher on Nigeria’ and frican Division’. It was also under her watch that another Nigerian, Ms An was appointed to replace her as ‘Researcher on Nigeria’. Ms Mausi Segun was picked from the integrity National Human Rights Commission where she was a career staff. INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES Address: 41, Miss Elems Street, Onitsha ross Rights Abuses/Violations Especially In Services And Advocacy Benefits And Run All-Inclusive f Gross Rights Abuses In Raging Security Forces Prohibited Conducts Or Acts rights, pro- democracy, led by criminologists, lawyers, journalists . We raise human rights and create databases and repeat-atrocities. ered with HRW in its Report on services and advocacy benefits human rights abuses and violations in Nigeria state actor terrorism have been denied and discriminated against the advocacy services and benefits’ denials have Ms Mausi Segun as ‘Researcher on Nigeria’ and later in h that another Nigerian, Ms Anietie Ewang the integrity-challenged . Ethno-Religious Biases Pushed HRW Out Of The East And The Middle-Belt Regions A cursory look at the advocacy activities of the HRW in Nigeria since 2013-2015 clearly showed that ethnic and religious biases have been responsible for near-total absence of the advocacy works and benefits of the HRW in Old Eastern and Middle-Belt Regions of Nigeria comprising South-East, South-South and North-Central as well as Southern Kaduna. This is more so when there is age-long evidence showing that citizens of Nigeria are deeply divided along ethnic, religious and hate lines. There is also a hate culture of “physical, structural and cultural violence” against the citizens of Old Eastern Nigeria and resurged ethnic and religious extremism and radicalism promoted at public affairs’ level under the immediate past Government of Nigeria (2015-2023). A civic space gagging or stifling policy was also introduced and promoted under the former central Government of Nigeria during which Government apologists and moles were discretely sponsored and placed at strategic positions in the local and international Rights Civil Society Organizations particularly those working on Nigeria. A number of censorship measures were put in place including infiltration of such respected Rights groups and watering down of their reports on Nigeria. Fake NGOs were also clandestinely floated and linked to the former Government of Nigeria. This is to the extent that according to the Carnegie Research Center in USA, “as at 2021, over 360 Government linked NGOs were registered in Nigeria to counterfeit and undermine the works of genuine and credible NGOs working to genuinely hold Government accountable in Nigeria”. A careful look at various reports issued by HRW on Nigeria since 2015 clearly indicates brazen exclusion of the Old Eastern and Middle-Belt Regions of the country. This is despite the two old Regions being the hotbed of the country’s conduct-atrocities by the security forces and Government-instigated or created or protected ‘armed opposition groups’. Under the watch of the two Nigerian appointees at HRW, the Eastern and the Middle-Belt Regions of Nigeria have been totally shut out and grisly and egregious rights abuses in the two Regions grossly overlooked or downplayed or skeletally reported. Such reports, when rarely issued (.i.e. mass killing of Christians and wanton destruction of their sacred places of worship and learning) also end up being watered down or riddled with Government censored jargons such as “Famers-Herders’ Clashes” or “Sectarian Crises”; despite acute disproportions in casualty figures, attacks and reprisals. How Eastern And Middle-Belt Regions Shut-Out By HRW Under Ms Mausi Segun It is pertinent to inform you, Madam Executive Director that several efforts have been made at different occasions by leaders of Intersociety and others to draw the advocacy attention of those in charge of Human Rights Watch in Nigeria to the grisly and egregious rights abuses or violations in Old Eastern and Middle-Belt Nigeria-all to no avail. We are aware that a good number of HRW reports on Nigeria in the past especially as at 2012 had included rights abuses that took place in the two Regions. This is to the extent that some field works done by HRW leading to issuance of such reports were co-conducted by leading Rights groups and activists from the two Regions. For instance apart from assisting the then HRW Researcher on Nigeria (Eric) in his field work investigations into corrupt activities and brutalities of the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force at roadblocks in Eastern Nigeria-leading to the HRW’s 10th August 2010 Report: ‘Everyone’s on the Game: Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by Nigeria Police Force’, the leaders of our Organization (Intersociety) assisted the Researcher with pieces of graphic evidence gathered from various police roadblocks exposing some police personnel openly collecting bribes at roadblocks. The graphic evidence was supported with our statement: “In Solidarity With Human Rights Watch”. It was our timely intervention that saved the Researcher from coordinated media criticisms and attacks that “his report is fundamentally lacking in convincing evidence”. Another example was in 2016, when Ms Mausi Segun attended a rights abuse report in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria-during which her attention was openly drawn to massive clampdowns and killing of unarmed agitators, protesters and passersby by the military and other security operatives in the South-East. Amnesty International which also sent its Researcher to the event later on 24th November 2016 issued a graphic report: “150 Unarmed Biafra Agitators Killed In South-East”. Till date, HRW under Mausi Segun has turned a blind eye to the South-East and SouthSouth. What We Are Asking HRW To Do We, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law are strongly calling on Human Rights Watch to fully return to Nigeria and run all-inclusive advocacy activities with specific focus on Nigeria’s hotbed of gross Rights abuses in Eastern and Middle-Belt Regions so as to save them from raging security forces conduct-atrocities and other internationally prohibited conducts or acts. It is also our special appeal to HRW under You to refocus its research and investigative activities on Nigeria’s human rights most abused Eastern and Middle-Belt Regions where the drafted rogue and jihadist military and policing personnel are having an unchecked field day by hate-policing, cracking down, killing, abducting, disappearing, torturing and criminalizing unarmed and defenseless citizens and burning down or wantonly destroying their properties particularly dwelling houses. As a matter fact and appeal, the HRW advocacy activities shall be carried out dispassionately without discrimination as to the vulnerable citizens’ gender, age, tribe, religious, language and class identities and regional locations or residencies. It is our recommendation that a new and non Nigerian native Researcher be appointed and tutored. Time For HRW To Push For International Accountability And End Of Impunity In Nigeria The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law is strongly calling on you, Madam Executive Director and other members of the HRW Management Team that time has come to push for international justice accountability and end of impunity over egregious perpetration of horrendous crimes and other internationally prohibited acts or conducts in Nigeria or any part thereof. We have continued to observe with deepest dismay and total disappointment that those fingered to be behind the perpetration and perpetuation of the horrendous crimes against persons and properties particularly the lead-perpetrators have continued to freely walk the streets of Nigeria and top global capital cities with impunity while those still in service as security officers or chiefs and public office holders have continued as “repeat-offenders or repeat-perpetrators”; thereby encouraging impunity and re-circling of perpetrators and emboldening them to perpetrate more. The inability to identify the perpetrators and severely punish them to deter others has also created a tumultuous culture of violent self helps and reprisal radicalism especially among the victims of the horrendous crimes and society, ethnicity and religion they belong or subscribe to. Therefore, the international justice accountability and end of impunity under our demand includes identifying the key perpetrators of the conduct-atrocities in Nigeria or any part thereof; dating back to 2013 till date (2023). Intersociety is aware that a litany of gross rights abuses reports on Nigeria authored by HRW and Amnesty International abound. For instance, apart from the HRW’s latest report: “more than 300 killed in Nigerian Military airstrikes’ “accidents” in the past seven years without justice accountability”, there are also AI’s reports on the killing of 150 unarmed Pro Biafra protesters in the South-East in 2016 and other special reports exposing the Nigerian military atrocities in the North-East and other parts of Northern Nigeria covering 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, etc. Specifically, there are Amnesty International’s reports on Nigerian Air Force and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen’s simultaneous attacks on Numan Christian villagers in Adamawa State in Dec 2017, the Kala-Balge IDP Camp bombings by Nigerian Air Force in Borno State in Jan 2017 and the massacre of Shiite Muslims in procession by Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna State in Dec 2015, among others. These did not include other major rights abuses reports by the likes of Nigeria’s Intersociety, etc. We are fully aware that till date no single key past or present security chief or top public office holder in Nigeria or any part thereof including former Army Chief, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, former President Muhammad Buhari, former Gov Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna State, former VicePresident Yemi Osinbajo, former Spy Police Chief, Musa Daura, former Police Chief, Solomon Arase and over 70 others have remained on the prowl and not been held accountable for their grisly and egregious conduct-atrocities covering at least 2015 to 2023. HRW Is Urged To Get UNSC/AU To Set Up Special Criminal Enquiries/Court On Nigeria Intersociety is specially urging the HRW to use its global influence, contacts and networks to diplomatically get the United Nations Security Council and the African Union to establish UN/AU Special Criminal Enquiries/Court on Nigeria so as to track the horrendous crimes of international concerns and their perpetrators and victims in Nigeria or any part thereof. Recent international cases in point were the creation of the AU Special Criminal Court in Senegal that tried and sentenced to life imprisonment former Chadian President, Hissene Habre in May 2016 during which the HRW played a leading role. The convicted and life-jailed former Chadian President later died in custody in Senegal on 24th August 2021 five years after he was convicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes for killing over 4000 civilians and general death of over 40,000 others during his atrocious rule of 1982-1990. In Lebanon, the UN Special Criminal Enquiry for Lebanon was set up on April 7, 2005 to look into the assassination of Prime Minister Hafiq Hariri who was killed in a bomb explosion on Feb 14, 2005l. Another clear case in point was the UN Criminal Enquiry on Pakistan set up in 2009 to look into the assassination of Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto in a bomb blast on 27th Dec 2007. Therefore, such UN/AU Criminal Enquiries/Court are urgently needed in Nigeria to look into the over 90,000 politico-religious deaths in the last fourteen years or July 2009 and track down and hold their perpetrators accountable. Defenseless Lives And Properties Wantonly Destroyed Using Ethnicity And Religion It is pertinent to inform you, Madam Executive Director that Nigeria is presently bedeviled by egregious human rights abuses and violations including unchecked attacks on freedom of religion or belief and sacred religious places of worship and learning particularly those belonging to non Muslims. Citizens’ rights to ethnic identity, existence and development have also come under unchecked attacks; likewise incessancy of attacks directed at citizens’ rights to life, personal dignity, religion, thought, conscience, personal liberty, fair hearing, movement, association, assembly, ownership of immovable properties, residency, protective environment, freedom from discrimination, political participation, education and social security rights including shelter, food, water and health. State terrorism or sponsorship of same is also being perpetrated and perpetuated with recklessness and impunity by state actors including ongoing slaughtering of defenseless citizens and burning down or wanton destruction of their dwelling houses and other properties; forcing hundreds of thousands into homelessness, internal displacement, international boundary refugee camps or settlements . The armed state actors have been identified and exposed as the worst violators or perpetrators-with 99.5% of them remaining uncaught, untouched and repeat-perpetrators. Investigations against them are rare and when rarely opened, they are abandoned thereafter owing to chronic security sector corruption, incompetence and ethnic and religious biases, sentiments, etc. Jihadists, Military And Police Have Turned Nigeria’s Six Regions Into Killing Fields The Nigeria’s six regions of South-East, South-South, South-West, North-West, North-East and NorthCentral are presently in turmoil and under siege by atrocious armed state actors and non state actors. Today, the intelligence and law enforcement operations or interventions by the Nigerian Military and policing establishments are found to respond rapidly to distress calls over “cows being in danger or under attack” than situations of emergency involving non Muslim citizens and their properties at risk or under severe threat or facing severe threat of attack or destruction. We at Intersociety hereby make bold to say that the position of HRW on the above is a height of Nigerian State detection and censorship. Apart from the position of HRW on the foregoing being ‘deeply displeasing and disappointing’, the realities on the ground are too far from tallying with the position of the HRW in Nigeria. For instance, it cannot be “Farmers-Herders clashes” when “out of every fifteen attacks by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen, there is one or zero reprisal from the attacked and out of every fifteen non Muslim homes or worship or learning centers burned down or destroyed by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen, none belongs to Muslims or Mosque or Islamic school”. We have also investigated and found that not only that all the victims of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in Middle Belt, Southern Kaduna, South-East, South-South and South-West are non Muslims but also attacks on Muslims including Muslim farmers, their homes and Mosques are carefully and selectively avoided”. This is in addition to the fact that all the armed groups wrecking havocs in Northern Nigeria are linked to members of Muslim faith. Intersociety had several times accused the immediate past Government of Nigeria of running a ‘State Jihad Project’ which went into full swing in Jan 2016 and has been escalated throughout the country’s six regions. The rag tag rise to clandestine State arming of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen started in Jos North and South in Plateau State in 2001 and later extended to Southern Kaduna and some parts of Benue State as anti Christian/pastoral Igbo uprising. The group thereafter got transformed into anti Christian Government terror squad in 2012 by Nigeria’s radical political Islamists for purpose of scuttling the second term bid of then President Goodluck Jonathan; a southern Christian. “Project State Jihadism” was fully adopted in Jan 2016 following the emergence of the Retired Major General Muhammad Buhari Government and in furtherance of renewed Fulani Jihadism violence across Africa. Today, the Middle-Belt including Benue, Plateau and Christian parts of Kogi, Nassarawa and Niger are under siege by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen, Fulani Bandits and rogue and jihadist personnel of the Nigerian Military. In the NorthEast including, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe; Boko Haram, Jihadist Herdsmen and Jihadist Fulani Bandits and jihadist military personnel are wrecking havoc; so also in the North-West especially in the Christian-held Southern Kaduna. In South-East and South-South, jihadist Military and Police personnel; joined by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are wrecking havoc; leading to emergence of motley of armed groups including those raised by the sub-national and national Governments to counterfeit the activities of the Eastern Security Network formed in Dec 2020 by IPOB to counter Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen’s military aided incursions into Eastern Nigeria’s forests, bushes and farmlands. The South-West Region is also under siege by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Fulani Bandits especially in Christian parts of Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and Ekiti, etc. It is also on irrefutable record that the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are controlled by the ‘Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACABAN)” and protected above the law by the Government of Nigeria especially the out-gone Government of Retired Major General Muhammad Buhari/Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo. Our Recent Report On Mass Atrocities In Imo State Intersociety had on 21st May 2023 released a ‘Special Research and Investigative Report on Imo State and the Report found that In 29 Months (Jan 2021-May 2023) Under Gov Hope Uzodinma In Nigeria’s Imo State: Security Forces And Allied Militias Killed 900 Unarmed Citizens, Wounded 700, Arbitrarily Arrested And Detained 3500, Extorted 1,400, Disappeared 300, Burned Down 1,200 Civilian Houses, Displaced Their 30,000 Owners And Forced 500,000 Citizens In Active Age-Brackets To Flee To Escape Being Shot And Killed Or Abducted And Disappeared In Security Custody. As Armed Non-State Actors: Fulani Jihadists, Counterfeit Agitators, Death Squads, Street Violent Criminal Entities, Etc, Killed 700 (400 In Captivity And 300 In Open Shootings) And Abducted 900. The Report was unveiled on 21st May 2023 at international media conference in Enugu in Eastern Nigeria and was widely published by most of the leading media in Nigeria including the Vanguard, Punch, Sun, This Day, the Nation, the Leadership, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Independent, Guardian, Daily Post, African Examiner, Daily Asset and News Express, News-Band, the Nigeria-Lawyer, the Trent, West African Pilot, the Nigerian Voice and the African Independent Television (AIT) and some international news media. The Special Report seeks to expose those that killed, abducted, disappeared, arbitrarily arrested and detained and tortured; those that aided, abetted and omitted to act to stop the killings, abductions, disappearances and torture; and those that were killed, abducted, tortured and disappeared. Also being sought are: when, where, how and why the killings, abductions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and disappearances and location and number of houses and other defenseless civilian properties burned down or wantonly destroyed and those responsible or aided and abetted their burning or destruction. The Report also contained several sections including local, regional and international legal frameworks, lists of victims and state and non state actor perpetrators, etc. For full details of the Special Report, the link is here: https://intersociety-ng.org/armed-state-actors-and-armed-non-stateactors-killed-1600-unarmed-citizens-in-29-months-in-imo-state/ Criminal Complaint Against Perpetrators Filed At ICC According to a 13-page document and attached others filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, The Netherlands against Gov Hope Uzodinma and 31 others, ‘crimes against humanity’ are strongly being suspected to have taken place and are still taking place in Nigeria’s Imo State, covering January 2021 to May 2023 and above. The Criminal Complaint was filed on Monday, 19th June 2023 and addressed to Prosecutor of the ICC, Mr. Karim A.A. Khan QC and it was filed for the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) and the Families of the victims mentioned and attached, marked as “Jane Doe 1-8” by the OKEKE ATTORNEYS from South Africa, headed by Nigeria’s Barr Austin Okeke, a respected international human rights lawyer. The filed Criminal Complaint was titled: “Notice Of Intention To File A (Criminal) Complaint And Request For The Initiation Of An Investigation Into Crimes Against Humanity In Imo State, Nigeria Pursuant To Articles 13(c), 15 and 53 Of The Rome Statute On The Basis Of Information On The Crimes Within The Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court “ICC”. For more details, see the link here: https://intersociety-ng.org/gov-uzodinmaex-igp-alkali-baba-ex-army-chief-faruk-yahaya-ex-cds-irabor-army-chief-lagbaja-27-others-dragged-to-icc-forinvestigation-and-prosecution-over-imo-mass-killings-ors/ Our Recent Reports On Massacre Of Christians In Nigeria A strong appeal is also made to you, Madam Executive Director on behalf of the persecuted Christians in Nigeria who have continued to be at the receiving end as targets and victims of egregious attacks and violence by the country’s Islamic Jihadists and their protectors in the country’s seats of power-with strong accusing fingers in the direction of the Government of Nigeria for doing nothing or being inescapably complicit. This is to the extent that according to detailed investigations contained in the reports enclosed below, over 2,300 defenseless Christians have been hacked to death by the Jihadists under the first six months of 2023 (Jan-June); over 31,000 slaughtered since June 2015 and 53,000 since the 2009 Boko Haram uprising; over 18,000 churches and 2,200 Christian schools burned down or wantonly destroyed, 1000 Christian communities sacked, 50m Christians uprooted and 15m Christian IDPs generated; out of which Benue State accounts for more than 2.5m Christian IDPs alone. The links to our two recent detailed Reports are here: https://intersociety-ng.org/farewell-gifts-to-buhari-ors-700-christiansslaughtered-in-may-1100-in-60-days-and-2150-in-160-days-of-2023/, https://intersociety-ng.org/5068-citizensmassacred-for-being-christians-in-nigeria-in-2022-1041-slaughtered-in-first-100-days-of-2023/ Reports Reviewed And Updated Our general review on genocidal situation of Christians in Nigeria, dated Sunday, 2nd July 2023 showed that the grisly and State protected and conspiratorial Jihadist attacks have left 2,500 defenseless Christians dead in the first six months of 2023 or January to June 2023, 31,700 hacked to dead between June 2015 and June 2023 and 53,750 since the 2009 Boko Haram uprising. The Report also found that at least 18,200 churches, 1000 traditional religious sanctuaries and 800 Synagogues/related others and 2,200 Christian schools have been burned down or wantonly destroyed in fourteen years or July 2009-June 2023-with 1100 Christian communities uprooted, 50m Christians forced out of their ancestral homes and lands into displacement and homelessness. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been forcefully converted to Islam and tens of thousands of non-menopausal Christian women raped or sexually abused or enslaved; with 15m Christian IDPs/Refugees generated and forced into internal or international homelessness; out of which, Benue State is the worst hit by accounting for more than 2.5m Christian IDPs. Our Report On Mass Atrocities In Imo State Reviewed Regarding our Special Research and Investigative Report on Mass Atrocities in Nigeria’s State of Imo, our general review which formed part of our Report of 2nd July 2023 (Report on Nigeria: 2500 Christians Slaughtered by Fulani Jihadists and Allied Others in the First Six Months of 2023) showed that: “in the past 30 months or January 2021 to 30th June 2023 under Hope Uzodinma as Governor of Imo State in Nigeria, a total of 1000 civilians have been killed by the Nigerian security forces, 3,700 arbitrarily arrested and 320 disappeared without traces. The security forces also burned down or wantonly destroyed not less than 1,400 civilian houses and their 72,000 occupants (average of 30 persons per dwelling ancestral house) forced into homelessness and displacement during which at least 600,000 members of the defenseless general population were forced to flee to avoid being class-criminalized, falsely profiled, abducted or arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial or killed and false-labeled. The general review also observed that seven of the eight armed non state actor groups identified in the 21st May 2023 Report to be operating in Imo State have killed at least 730 defenseless citizens and abducted 940 during the 30 months gone by. Intersociety has severally investigated and found that victims of the Muslim-controlled Nigerian security forces’ atrocities in Imo State are targeted on the grounds of their ethnicity, religion and identities-a fundamental breach of the international freedom of worship or belief and right to ethnic identity. For more details on the two reviewed Reports, the link is here: https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/322604/report-on-nigeria-2500- christians-slaughtered-by-fulani-ji.html Yours Faithfully, For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law /s E. Umeagbalasi Emeka Umeagbalasi, M.Sc. Criminologist/Researcher Intersociety’s Board Chair/Lead-Director /s U. Igboeli Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire, LL.B, BL Intersociety’s Head of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law /s C. Udegbunam Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire, LL.B, BL Intersociety’s Head of Campaign and Publicity /s N.C. Bernard Ndidiamaka Catherine Bernard Esquire, LL.B, BL, LL.M Intersociety’s Head of International Justice and Human Rights /s OC. Agu Ositadinma Agu Intersociety’s Head, Int’l Contacts and Mobilization Contacts: Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052 Email: [email protected] Website: https://intersociety-ng.org Note: Please all replies to the leadership of Intersociety regarding this special letter should be sent to the WhatsApp and Email contacts above and copied +2348100098016 or +2349022593196 or [email protected]. Attached is a group photograph taken on 10th August 2010 in Lagos, Nigeria during the HRW Report on Corruption and Human Rights Abuses in the Nigeria Police Force. Our Board Chair, Emeka Umeagbalasi is standing third from the right and second from the left.