BREAKING: Despite Calls For Prosecution, Buhari Appoints Buratai, Olonisakin As Ambassadors

Despite calls for prosecution of Nigeria’s recently retired Service Chiefs, President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated four of the outgone security chiefs as non-career ambassadors-designate.

Buhari, in a letter he wrote to Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, asked the upper legislative chamber to confirm the nomination of former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, and ex-Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin, amongst others, as non-career ambassadors-designate.

The President said the request was “In accordance with section 171 (1), (2) (c) & sub-section (4) of 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.”

Presidential aide, Femi Adesina, quoted Buhari as saying: “I have the honour to forward for confirmation by the Senate, the under-listed five (5) names of nominees as Non-Career Ambassadors-Designate.”

The nominees are: Gen Abayomi G. Olonisakin (Rtd ), Lt Gen Tukur Y. Buratai (Rtd), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (Rtd), and Air Vice Marshal Mohammed S. Usman (Rtd).

Recall that a human rights group, Concerned Nigerians, had called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute Buratai for alleged crimes against humanity.

The group had accused Buratai of ordering the army to kill over 300 defenseless Shiites on the grounds that they “touched a General’s chest.”

“Shortly after, Buratai ordered the Nigerian soldiers to kill hundreds of citizens of South Eastern extraction, in the guise of searching for members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

“It is particularly noteworthy to mention that as at the time he ordered the massacre of IPOB members, the group had not been proscribed by Nigerian government,” the group had said in a statement signed by its convener, Deji Adeyanju.

The group also asked the ICC to prosecute Buratai for allegedly ordering the killing of innocent #EndSARS protesters at Lekki tollgate, Lagos, on October 20, 2020.

“Based on the foregoing, among other human rights abuses, we call on the ICC and friends of Nigeria to urgently investigate, arrest and prosecute Buratai, to serve as deterrent to military chiefs and their civilian collaborators, who have made it a point of duty to indiscriminately abuse human rights,” the letter added.

Likewise, the Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province (Anglican Communion), Emmanuel Chukwuma, called for the probe of immediate past service chiefs, saying: “It took Nigeria three years to end the civil war, but now, for over 11 years, Boko Haram has not ended. It is a shame and disgrace to the armed forces, with all these bandits and kidnappings going on.”