Abuja DSS Jailbreak: The Truth Behind It Exposed By New York Times

Abuja DSS Jailbreak: The Truth Behind It Exposed By New York Times

Today, the New York Times carried a story based on an Amnesty International Report that alleges that about 600 unarmed, recaptured detainees who had been earlier freed when Boko Haram fighters attacked the Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State were re-arrested, and then summarily executed by soldiers in various locations in Maiduguri. “Amongst the testimony gathered by Amnesty International were the voices of witnesses who described what happened when the military found 56 of those who had escaped from the Giwa barracks. “The former detainees were in a classroom. They started screaming ‘we are not Boko Haram. We are detainees!’ My neighbours and I saw the soldiers take the men to a place called ‘no man’s land,’ behind the University of Maiduguri. We watched as the soldiers opened fire killing all 56. They were killed in front of us. All of them.”
We cannot afford to be quiet when the State kills in circumstances like this, notwithstanding the extremism and violence of armed groups that has brought much gut-wrenching bloodshed and dislocation to our country. Our answer to extremist depravities cannot mirror and reproduce the brutishness and mindlessness we condemn, for then, we can’t say we have set a standard by which we are entitled to judge and condemn others, for we can be no different from those judged. But more than that, we run the universal risk of exposing innocent people suffering to the injustice of stigmatization and victimization from mislabeling. That stigmatization has often led to many deaths, unfair, unfortunate deaths.

Nelson Mandela, that hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, was once branded a terrorist by the White government in Pretoria. Had he been killed the way the 21 inmates in the custody of the SSS were, the world would have been denied knowledge of the truth of who Mandela really was. Who is to say whether all of those persons in SSS custody were actually Boko Haram members in a country where people are picked up randomly and hauled to face fabricated crimes? In a country where security agencies are plumbing the depths of incredulity to make distorted claims of their progress in winning the war against terrorism?
Prisoners and detainees still have the right to life and where there is an attempt to escape detention, their lives cannot be taken whimsically, or as a retribution for the attempt to escape detention or cause political embarrassment. In the context of the location where this escape bid was reportedly launched, it is untenable to argue that there were no non-lethal means of preventing the escapes.
The Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right to life, and the government is under a constitutional responsibility to thoroughly and impartially investigate the deaths of any persons who die in custody. Many international norms and instruments obligate Nigeria to undertake credible, impartial and thorough investigations into the death of any persons who die in custody. For example, Principle No 34 of the United Nations Body of Principles for the Protection All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment provides that:
“Whenever the death or disappearance of a detained or imprisoned person occurs during his detention or imprisonment, an inquiry into the cause of death or disappearance shall be held by a judicial or other authority, either on its own motion or at the instance of a member of the family of such a person or any person who has knowledge of the case. When circumstances so warrant, such an inquiry shall be held on the same procedural basis whenever the death or disappearance occurs shortly after the termination of the detention or imprisonment. The findings of such inquiry or a report thereon shall be made available upon request… “
We also urge the National Human Rights Commission, by virtue of its statutory mandate, to undertake a thorough and independent investigation into what actually happened during the jail break and ensure that the truth is not buried under the weight of what is politically expedient for the SSS to claim at this time. After this investigation, the Commission should refer any matter of human rights violation requiring prosecution to the Attorney General of Federation.