Obasanjo’s letter: SERAP wants UN Rapporteur to pressure FG to halt alleged training of snipers
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a petition to Professor Christof HEYNS UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions urging him to “ask the Nigerian government to halt any alleged training of snipers for political purposes.”
SERAP’s petition followed allegation last week by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who accused the government of President Goodluck Jonathan of “training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha, and training them where Abacha trained his own killers.”
The organization called for “the investigation of the allegation and for whoever is involved to be brought to justice.”
The petition reads in part: “We are seriously concerned that the allegation, if true, amounts to a grave breach of international law, and directly undermines the government’s responsibility to safeguard the safely and security of the citizens. It also constitutes an assault on the rule of law, and is entirely inconsistent with the practice of a democratic society, which Nigeria strives to become.”
According to the organization, “The government has a particular responsibility to protect all citizens and others resident in the country against human rights violations. The right to life is widely regarded as the supreme right. The training of snipers will invariably lead to a pervasive climate of insecurity and the absence of the rule of law.”
“The legal right to life and protection against extrajudicial execution is recognized by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party. Article 6 of the Covenant states that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” This right is non-derogable even in times of emergency,” the organization also said.
The organization therefore urged the Special Rapporteur “to thoroughly investigate the allegations, and to ask the Nigerian government to halt the training of snipers and other armed personnel as the continuation of this will be inimical to the citizens’ protection of their right to life and other associated human rights.”