Groups to petition US Government over suit against Buratai, 13 others

The National Committee of Yoruba Youth and  the Coalition of Civil Society Groups against Terrorism in Nigeria have concluded plans to  petition the Embassy of the United States in Nigeria over what it described as another in the series of attempts to interfere in the sovereignty of Nigeria by some “disgruntled” Nigerians and external collaborators, who have chosen the United States of America as an abode to carry out their orchestrated plans against the Nation’s security agencies, particularly the Nigerian Army.

The group said this during a media briefing in Lagos on Wednesday by its President, Comrade Oladimeji Odeyemi.

Odeyemi was reacting to the decision of a United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which has granted leave to a group of 10 Biafran agitators to sue Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, and 13 others for what it described as their complicity in the 2016 torture and extra-judicial killings of some Biafran protesters.

The group said it hoped to use the petition to remind the United States Government that the activities of those persons, who now seek to hide under the US judicial system to distract Nigeria’s ongoing war against terrorism, separatist agitation and all forms of insurgency, had posed several security threats not just to Nigeria, but also to other countries of the world, including the United States.

Odeyemi said contrary to claims by these persons, who he described as agent provocateurs, that there is a continuous clampdown on protesters and their families in Nigeria, it is the Biafra agitators, mainly from the Indigenous People of Biafra sect, that have been harassing innocent Nigerians at every given time, that they embark on their activities.

The group said it will also use the medium to mobilise for the support of the United States Government and other international bodies to assist Nigeria in promoting and sustaining the peaceful atmosphere currently being experienced in the country as a result of the brilliant effort of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, coupled with the untiring commitment of the nation’s security agencies, particularly the Nigerian Army, under Buratai, towards a total restoration of peace in most formerly troubled parts of the country.

Odeyemi said: “We wish to advice those persons and their political patrons, who think they can hide in foreign lands, to truncate the ongoing process of sustaining our country’s Unity and mutual trust, to have a rethink, and join in the ongoing process of building a new Nigeria. The Nigerian Army and its leadership have come of age and enjoys the massive solidarity and support of our people, who can now differentiate between what was obtainable in the past, and an Army, now built on quality service and integrity.”