ICC prosecutors in Nigeria warn against election violence

The ICC prosecutor’s position was disclosed to newsmen at a forum in Abuja, Thursday by the ICC delegation from The Hague led by Phakiso Mochochoko, the Director of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division.Mochochoko, who explained that the team’s mission is to assess the situation in Nigeria to determine if there are criteria for criminal investigation […]

The ICC prosecutor’s position was disclosed to newsmen at a forum in Abuja, Thursday by the ICC delegation from The Hague led by Phakiso Mochochoko, the Director of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division.
Mochochoko, who explained that the team’s mission is to assess the situation in Nigeria to determine if there are criteria for criminal investigation and engage the authorities, said the prosecutor would not spare anyone who incites violence in the general elections.
The prosecutor’s message presented by Mochochoko warns that, ‘No one should doubt my resolve, whenever necessary, to prosecute individuals responsible for the commission of ICC crimes.’
“She wishes Nigerians peaceful elections and fair processes. What we do not want to see in Nigeria is bloodshed and commission of crimes,” he said.
On the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, the ICC delegation said it is gathering information on alleged large-scale killings, the use of children and women as suicide bombers in market attacks in Maiduguri and Potiskum, and vowed the abuses will not be tolerated.
It reminded Nigeria that as a state party to the Rome Statute, it has “committed to ensuring that crimes that deeply shock the conscience of humanity do not go unpunished.”
Meanwhile, a group – Northern Coalition for Democracy and Justice – has said that it has submitted additional information linking the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to the 2011 post-election violence to the International Criminal Court of Justice at The Hague.
The group’s lawyer, Prof. Sluiter Goran, spoke with the officers of the coalition in a video call on Skype, confirming that he had filed the supplementary evidence at The Hague.
The group insisted that the 2011 post-election violence was not spontaneous “but was orchestrated and the direct result of General Buhari’s inflammatory speeches.”
The group accused the federal government of lacking the political will to stop electoral violence in Nigeria.
The group’s Secretary, Research and Documentation, Ibrahim Baba, noted that the much the federal government did after the 2011 post-election violence was to constitute a commission of inquiry.
He said that government’s lack of will to move against sponsors of electoral violence accounted for why political actors have continued to instigate violence.
He said the government had refused to act on the report of the commission because it (the government)  remained insensitive to the plight of victims of such violence, and was comfortable with the culture of impunity in the land.