CPC Wants Obasanjo Arraigned for Odi Genocide

Following the ruling of the Federal High Court on the 1999 invasion of Odi community in Bayelsa State, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Monday called for the arraignment of former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide.In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, the party said Justice Lambo Akanbi in his judgment had described the invasion of Odi as genocidal, reckless, brutish and a gross violation of the rights of the victims to life and ownership of property, and ordered the Federal Government to pay N37.6 billion as compensation to the victims.

The party also recalled that in 2001, the same government led by Obasanjo, ordered the invasion of Zaki-Biam, in Benue State, with the same malevolence as Odi.

For that, another court in 2007 ordered the government to pay N4.8 billion as compensation to the victims.

The CPC therefore argued that the course of justice would be best served if the head of the government at the material time, Obasanjo, is formally arraigned for genocide at the ICC.
CPC said the implication of his arraignment would be the institution of constitutional order and decency among the ruling elite so that the inalienable rights of the people to personal liberty and justice remains sacrosanct.

It pointed out that in Article 5(1a) of the statute of the ICC, genocide is a crime under the jurisdictional purview of the court, and that Article 6 (a-c) defines “genocide” as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

“Undoubtedly, at the time of these infractions, the Nigerian state was not in a state of war with these communities,” CPC said. “Indeed, the action typified the impunity and excessive show of executive recklessness that PDP-led regimes have evinced in the 13 years of the nation’s latest acceptance of democratic governance.

“The various PDP-led regimes have given wider meaning to the use of the military to include over-militarisation of the electoral process for the purpose of gaining undue advantage over the opposition,” the party said.
It asserted that no amount of monetary compensation can fully assuage the sense of loss of the hapless communities whose right to life was indecently trampled upon by the PDP-led Federal Government of Obasanjo.

“It is equally our belief that, with the establishment of the intent and content of the invasion as genocidal, the course of justice is best served if the head of the government at the material time, that is, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is formally arraigned before the ICC for the crime of genocide.
“The wider implication of the arraignment shall be the institution of constitutional order and decency among the ruling elite so that the inalienable rights of the people to personal liberty and justice shall remain sacrosanct," it said.