The US Court of Appeals is set to hear, on September 23, 2019, the civil claimant appeal suit brought against Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, and 15 other serving and former top security officials in Nigeria. The case lodged by the Ekwe-Nche Research Institute/Organization in Chicago, Illinois, USA, concerns bullet-killing and torture of dozens of defenseless and unarmed jubilant-protesters, many in religious sanctuaries and their places of work. The alleged victims were/are of the old Eastern Nigeria, also referred as ‘Igbo-Biafrans’. Ekwe-Nche in a statement on Tuesday in Chicago signed by Chairman, Ekwe-Nche Board of Committees, Prof Justine Akujieze; Chair Genocide Legal Committee, Maazi L. Nwannunu; and President, BiafraGenocide Survivors Int’l, Dr Moses Nwaigwe, said: “The killings perpetrated under the color of the Government of Nigeria took place between August 2015 and May 2016; which resulted in the death of not less than 270 and torturing and bullet-wounding of 300 others. From the carnage of Buhari’s slaughter, ten courageous victim-families volunteered to seek international reparative justice before the American Court through the Ekwe-Nche and its Nigerian partners; with the famous Washington, D.C. Law Firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC, handling the matter.
“Other killings perpetrated by Nigerian security forces also occurred between 20th Jan and Sept 12th, 13th and 14th 2017. The totality of the mass killing, torture and wounding led to almost half a thousand deaths and injuring of over half a thousand. The massacre had taken place under no justifiable State excuses supported by local (i.e. Constitution) and international laws (i.e. ICCPR, ICESCR and African Rights Charter) as the areas affected by the killings are not involved in internal violent conflict or war zone. As at the time of the mass killings, the victims were unarmed and defenseless. They were specifically massacred or maimed on account of their ethnic identity (Igbo) and religious affinity (Judeo-Christianity).
“The suit, brought under the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 1992 (USA), was originally filed on 30th May 2017, Biafra Day and referenced as John Doe, et al (Plaintiffs) v Tukur Buratai, et al. The TPVA suit was dismissed via legal technicalities at the US District Court for the District of Columbia without being heard, the Ekwe-Nche and its lawyer, Bruce Fein, a former top American justice official, thereafter went on appeal to the United States Court
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