Benin City, Nigeria – Civil Empowerment & Rule of Law Support Initiative (CERLSI) has tasked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and sanction perpetrators of Human Rights Abuses alleged to have been carried out by Nigeria’s security forces during the February 23, 2019 Presidential Elections.
CERLSI Deputy Executive Director, Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku who made the call in Benin on Monday, said that even though Nigeria’s presidential Elections were seen to be free and peaceful, reports attributed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), indicate that some of its staff members were beaten, raped and abused by security forces drafted to ensure that the conduct of elections was peaceful, credible and fair.
“Such allegations as have been made by the INEC, especially that that refers to the rape of women working for it is very weighty. The raping of women and girls is an abnormal human occurrence that usually occurs under abnormal situations like wars or a battlefield.
“When these women were allegedly raped and abused, Nigeria was not at war but conducting an election. Therefore, to have an allegation of this magnitude hovering over a country like Nigeria that is striving to establish an election blueprint for the rest of Africa is unfortunate. That is why we are calling on the ICC and the UN to investigate these human rights abuse and sanction those culpable,” Mr. Etemiku said.
In 2015, Nigeria conducted an election largely seen to be free and fair. Even though there were incidents of post election violence in certain sections of Nigeria, there was no record of human rights abuses like the scale being alleged to have taken place, especially the alleged raping of women in the employment of a Federal government body by security forces, Etemiku said.
“The UN may want to consider that prior to the elections proper, government officials made very incendiary comments which charged up the polity and heightened the kind of tension that has led to the human rights abuses reported during the presidential elections of February 23, 2019. What may happen is that if these allegations of human rights abuses and rape are not investigated and dealt with, an unfortunate precedence will be set by Nigerian politicians for other African politicians to copy,” Mr. Etemiku said.
