Probing state-sponsored killings

This is preparatory to a public hearing it planned to conduct on the matter.The NHRC is making the move following a letter to its governing board by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke. Adoke’s directive was itself prompted by a request from President Goodluck Jonathan to him […]

This is preparatory to a public hearing it planned to conduct on the matter.
The NHRC is making the move following a letter to its governing board by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke. Adoke’s directive was itself prompted by a request from President Goodluck Jonathan to him to investigate former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s widely-circulated allegation that the administration had a watch list of 1000 political opponents as targets for assassination.
Obasanjo also claimed in letters to Jonathan that the government was training snipers to carry out the assassination missions.
Although Jonathan’s point-by-point rebuttal to Obsanjo’s allegation was made public, the directive to the NHRC was made through normal government bureaucratic channels. The board of the NHRC met, considered the letter and its contents and decided to take the current course.
There is no denying the fact that Obasanjo’s allegations, which also covered the Jonathan administration’s handling of the economy, are weighty and deserving of prompt action.
Given the widespread scepticism that the government is not capable of investigating itself, the choice of the NHRC, although a government agency, was perhaps inevitable.
In recent months, the Commission has shown itself to be capable of taking independent actions, and has launched high-profile inquiries into extrajudicial killings involving the security agencies.
However, the task of investigating politically motivated murders that have occurred since November 1995, many of them unresolved, would severely test not just the capacity of the NHRC, but its ability to be even-handed.
It terms of reference provide a clue to how difficult and challenging the task can be.
It will determine whether or not there are, or have been, state-sponsored killings or assassinations in Nigeria at any time since November 1995 to date; should that be the case, the NHRC should identify what organisations, institutions, agencies or persons, were or are involved in or affected by such killings and assassinations.
Addressing the central point of Obasanjo’s allegation, the NHRC will also inquire into whether there is or has been any time since November 1995, a list of person to be targeted for watching or for such killings and assassinations; and if that should in fact prove to be the case, the Commission should determine if the perpetrators, ‘known or unknown’, were brought to justice or assisted, facilitated or helped by any persons or institutions to evade justice.
The Commission is also to determine whether the victims of any such killings or assassinations were, or have been, afforded access to truth or effective remedies.
The period within the Commission’s terms of reference encompasses the 8-year tenure of the Obasanjo presidency, 1999 to 2007 during which prominent politicians like Chief Bola Ige were gunned down.  Ige was killed in December 2001 while he held office as Attorney General and Minister of Justice in Obsanjo’s cabinet.  His killers are yet to be identified, let alone brought to justice. High ranking ruling party officials, and a number of opposition politicians, like Chief Harry Marshal and Chief Asari Dikibo, among others, met similar fates.
Outside that bracket is the case Chief MKO Abiola, the candidate of the defunct Social democratic Party (SDP) in the June 1993 presidential election, who suddenly slumped as he sipped tea in July 1998 with a team of US officials that visited him in Abuja while in detention for declaring himself president. Abiola was detained by the military government of General Sani Abacha, who died a month later, also in circumstances that have not been officially explained.  It is not clear if both deaths fall under the commission’s ambit.
The list of such unresolved deaths is long. The commission therefore has its work cut out for it.
Although its assignment is political in nature, how it handles it, particularly the public hearing that will follow, could have far-reaching implications beyond politics and would have impact on law enforcement issues and justice system in Nigeria.
What would happen to its findings is yet to be addressed, but the constitution of a judicial commission to consider them would be the logical way to go.