UN Moves To Stop Execution Of 54 Soldiers

Reprieve may have come the way of the 54 Nigerian soldiers sentenced to death by a military court martial in Abuja as the United Nations (UN) has said it is considering appropriate action, including conferring with President Goodluck Jonathan, against their imminent execution, according to LEADERSHIP.

This is coming just as Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Femi Falana (SAN), has again pleaded with the chief of army staff, Lt-Gen Kenneth Minimah, who is the confirming authority of the soldiers’ death penalty, to quash their conviction and sentence.

He contended that the army’s top hierarchy was merely “covering up its weaknesses by court-martialing these soldiers.”

The planned appropriate action of the UN, which was confirmed by the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary or Summary Executions, headed by Mr Christof Heyns, followed a petition submitted to it by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

“Appropriate action, including communication to the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, is being considered regarding the imminent execution of 54 soldiers in Nigeria,” SERAP quoted Heyns to have stated in response to its petition.

The rights group had in December 2014 petitioned the world body, asking five UN human rights independent experts to individually and jointly intervene.

Specifically, SERAP asked the experts to use their “good offices and positions to urgently request the Nigerian government and its military authorities not to carry out the mass death sentences imposed on 54 Nigerian soldiers for what the government claimed was disobeying a direct order from their commanding officer.”

SERAP’s executive director, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, in a statement he issued yesterday, noted that the group had been holding talks with Johel Dominique at the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary or Summary Executions both on the telephone and via email.

He said, “Johel Dominique has confirmed that the Special Rapporteur is considering appropriate action to avert the imminent execution of 54 soldiers on death row in the country. We have also confirmed to the Special Rapporteur that SERAP has the consent of Mr Femi Falana, SAN, the legal counsel to the 54 soldiers, to file the petition.

“SERAP welcomes the decision by Mr Christof Heyns to intervene in the matter. Given his longstanding human rights commitment and achievements, we have absolutely no doubt that Mr Heyns will work assiduously to ensure that justice is done in this matter.”

Mumuni listed the five special rapporteurs to include Heyns; Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan Méndez; Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff; chair, Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mads Andenas, and Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights While Countering Terrorism, Ben Emmerson.

In the petition copied to Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, SERAP contended that the courts-martial held in secret were “a mockery of justice” and ignored issues raised by the condemned men that “suggest lack of transparency, accountability and general deficiencies” in the handling of the security budget and arms purchases.

It also argued: “Under international law, cases involving capital punishment such as the present one require the full and scrupulous respect of the guarantees of highest standards of fairness, due process and justice.”

“All human rights depend on, for their enjoyment, the right to life, which is the most fundamental of all rights. The right to life symbolizes everything that the United Nations works and stands for, be it in the area of peace and security, development or human rights. To reject the act of irreversibly taking someone’s life is to embrace belief in human progress and dignity,” it added.

The UN human rights experts are part of what it is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.

Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights Council, is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.

LEADERSHIP recalls that the Nigerian Army’s 7 Division General Court Martial had on Wednesday December 17, 2014, convicted 54 soldiers for conspiracy to commit mutiny and sentenced them to death by firing squad.

The soldiers from the 111 Special Forces Unit were charged for allegedly disobeying a direct order from their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Opurum, to take part in an operation to recapture Delwa, Bulabulin and Damboa towns in Borno State from Boko Haram terrorists on August 4.