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Pro Biafra protesters in southern Nigeria on Sunday 8 November, 2015
Image caption
Recuring protests seeking an independent Biafra have been seen in the past year
Nigeria's security forces have killed more than 150 peaceful protestors since August 2015, a human rights group has claimed.
Amnesty International said the country's military used live ammunition and deadly force against pro-Biafra protestors who were campaigning for independence from Nigeria.
Nigeria's police denies allegations that it used unnecessary force.
The country's army said Amnesty was trying to tarnish its reputation.
Amnesty's report is based on interviews with almost 200 people, alongside more than 100 photographs and 87 videos.
Among the allegations contained in the report are what Amnesty called "extrajudicial executions", when 60 people were shot and killed in Onitsha, in the two days surrounding Biafra Remembrance Day in May 2016.
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"This reckless and trigger-happy approach to crowd control has caused at least 150 deaths, and we fear the actual total might be far higher" said Makmid Kamara, Amnesty's interim director for Nigeria.
Other victims detailed in the report include a 26-year-old man who was shot in Nkpor, but hid in a gutter, still alive. He said when soldiers found him, they poured acid over him, and told him he would die slowly.
A man cradles a severely burned arm in an Amnesty-provided photoImage copyrightAMNESTY
Image caption
This photo from Amnesty International shows a man who said soldiers poured acid on him after he was shot
Another woman said she had been speaking to her husband on a mobile phone when he told her he had been shot in the abdomen. He was calling from a military vehicle, she said, and she heard gunshots. She later found his body in a morgue with two more wounds in his chest, leading her to believe he had been executed after the call.
The human rights organisation said pro-Biafra protests had been "large peaceful" despite occasional incidents of protester throwing stones and burning tyres - and one occasion when someone shot at police.
"Regardless, these acts of violence and disorder did not justify the level of force used against the whole assembly."
But army spokesman Sani Usman that "the military and other security agencies exercised maximum restraints despite the flurry of provocative and unjustifiable violence".
A Biafran state
In the past year there have been a series of protests by supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
The movement wants to create an independent state - Biafra - in the southeast of Nigeria, home to the Igbo people.

Media captionNigeria's Biafra leader in 1969 urges on his 'brave boys'
A previous attempt to establish a state triggered the Nigerian civil war almost 50 years ago, in the aftermath of Nigeria's 1966 coup.
Unaddressed grievances from 1966 lie at the heart of the Biafra movement's resurgence.
Many Igbos feel that Nigeria is still punishing them for their previous attempt at secession.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38087836?ocid=socialflow_twitter


Amnesty: Military Killed 150 Pro-Biafra Separatists in Nigeria
November 23, 2016 11:11 PM
Associated Press
FILE - Policemen stand guard as supporters of Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu rally in Abuja, Nigeria Dec. 1, 2015.
FILE - Policemen stand guard as supporters of Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu rally in Abuja, Nigeria Dec. 1, 2015.
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LAGOS, NIGERIA —
Nigeria’s military has killed at least 150 peaceful protesters in a “chilling campaign” to repress renewed demands to create a breakaway state of Biafra in the southeast, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The military denied any “killing of defenseless agitators.” Security forces have “exercised maximum restraint” in response to violent protesters who in May killed five police officers and wounded several soldiers, said army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.

Evidence analyzed

The London-based human rights organization said an analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and testimony from 146 witnesses showed “the military fired live ammunition with little or no warning” into crowds protesting in several cities between August 2015 and August 2016.

Hundreds of people have been arbitrarily detained and some tortured, Amnesty said.

Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu at the federal high court in Abuja, Nigeria Jan. 20, 2016.
Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu at the federal high court in Abuja, Nigeria Jan. 20, 2016.
The report quotes one woman in Onitsha city who said her husband called her May 30 to say a soldier had shot him in the stomach and he was in a military truck with six others, four dead, and then whispering that the vehicle had stopped. Then she heard gunshots. The woman later found her husband’s body at a mortuary with three gunshot wounds, one to the stomach and two in the chest, the report said.

Amnesty said it has “evidence of mass extrajudicial executions by security forces,’’ including at least 60 people killed at a May 30 rally in Onitsha to commemorate the 1967-1970 civil war to create a Biafran state for the Igbo people. One million people died in that war.

Usman accused the secessionists of targeting other tribes in “a reign of hate, terror and ethno-religious controversies ... (threatening) national security.”

Protests increase

Protests have increased, along with military violence, since the October 2015 arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, a leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, who has broadcast incendiary statements in southeast Nigeria through the group’s London-based clandestine Radio Biafra.

Amnesty said that Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to investigate but done nothing about its previous reports documenting the December 2015 military killings of more than 300 Shiites and the deaths in military detention of some 8,000 people in the war to curb Boko Haram’s Islamic.
http://www.voanews.com/a/amnesty-nigeria-military-kills-150-peaceful-biafra-protesters/3609691.html?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=voa_news&utm_medium=twitter

The world is taking note

Nigeria likes digging itself a hole. When you make your detractors into martyrs you give credence to their cause. Instead of shooting talk to them. If you make proper reforms people will not want to leave.

Nigerian army posted this few hours before bbc posted the news. Is someone jittery?

But army spokesman Sani Usman that "the military and other security agencies exercised maximum restraints despite the flurry of provocative and unjustifiable violence"

Exercised maximum restraints indeed, this folks are only good at exercising maximum restraints against any unarmed group. When they come before armed groups they become un predictably weak and ineffective.

Niger area wat a country...

Before I'm banned again...



God of justice, we leave everything unto your hands!

On the destined day of the monkey's death, all branches of the tree becomes slippery!

Amnesty International: 150 Pro-Biafra Activists Killed in Nigeria
November 24, 20160204



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Army denies report
Senator Iroegbu in Abuja and Ejiofor Alike in Lagos

A new investigative report by the Amnesty International has accused the Nigerian security forces, led by the military, of embarking on a chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and violence resulting in the deaths of at least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters in the south-east of the country.

The report, which was the result of the analysis of 87 videos, 122 photographs and 146 eye witness testimonies relating to demonstrations and other gatherings between August 2015 and August 2016, consistently showed that the military fired live ammunition with little or no warning to disperse crowds.



Amnesty also found evidence of mass extrajudicial executions by security forces, including at least 60 people shot dead in the space of two days in connection with events to mark Biafra Remembrance Day.

The Interim Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Makmid Kamara, said the deadly repression of pro-Biafra activists was further stoking tensions in the South-east.

“This reckless and trigger-happy approach to crowd control has caused at least 150 deaths and we fear the actual total might be far higher. The Nigerian government’s decision to send in the military to respond to pro-Biafra events seems to be in large part to blame for this excessive bloodshed. The authorities must immediately launch an impartial investigation and bring the perpetrators to book,” Kamara said.

The report noted that since August 2015, there has been a series of protests, marches and gatherings by members and supporters of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who have been seeking the creation of a Biafran state.
According to the report, tensions increased further following the arrest of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who has remained in detention since October 14, 2015.

Amnesty International said on September 30, 2016, it shared the key findings of this report with the Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Interior, Inspector General of Police and the Director-General of the State Security Services.

According to the organisation, responses were received from the Attorney General and Inspector General of Police but neither answered the questions raised in the report.

Giving the details of the massacre, Amnesty International stated that by far the largest number of pro-Biafra activists was killed on Biafra Remembrance Day on May 30, 2016 when an estimated 1,000 IPOB members and supporters gathered for a rally in Onitsha, Anambra State.

The report added that on the night before the rally, the security forces raided homes and a church where IPOB members were sleeping.

“On the remembrance day itself, the security forces shot people in several locations. Amnesty International has not been able to verify the exact number of extrajudicial executions, but estimates that at least 60 people were killed and 70 injured in these two days,” the report explained.

Amnesty International said it had also reviewed videos of a peaceful gathering of IPOB members and supporters at Aba National High School on February 9, 2016, stressing that the Nigerian military surrounded the group and then fired live ammunition at them without any prior warning.

Citing eyewitnesses and local human rights activists, the report stated that many of the protesters at Aba were rounded up and taken away by the military.
On 13 February, 13 corpses, including those of men known to have been taken by the military, were discovered in a pit near the Aba highway.

“It is chilling to see how these soldiers gunned down peaceful IPOB members. The video evidence shows that this was a military operation with intent to kill and injure,” Kamara said.
However, the Nigerian Army has denied the report describing it as a biased campaign of calumny.
The Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, debunked the insinuation the Nigerian troops perpetrated the killing of defenceless agitators.

According to Usman, this is an outright attempt to tarnish the reputation of the security forces in general and the Nigerian Army in particular, for whatever inexplicable parochial reasons.
He said: “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a planned release of a report by Amnesty International on an unfounded storyline of mass killings of MASSOB/IPOB protesters by the military between August 2015 and August 2016.

“For umpteenth times, the Nigerian Army has informed the public about the heinous intent of this non-governmental organisation which is never relenting in dabbling into our national security in manners that obliterate objectivity, fairness and simple logic.

“The evidence of MASSOB/IPOB violent secessionist agitations is widely known across the national and international domains. Their modus operandi has continued to relish violence that threatens national security. Indeed between August 2015 and August 2016, the groups’ violent protests have manifested unimaginable atrocities to unhinge the reign of peace, security and stability in several parts of the South East Nigeria,” he added.
Usman stated that a number of persons from the settler communities that hailed from other parts of the country were selected for attack, killed and burnt.

He said such reign of hate, terror and ethno-religious controversies that portend grave consequences for national security have been averted severally through the responsiveness of the Nigerian Army and members of the security agencies.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/11/24/amnesty-international-150-pro-biafra-activists-killed-in-nigeria/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

ICC loading for some bast.ards after 2019

Dictatorial Government.


#Atiku2019

byrron:
On the destined day of the monkey's death, all branches of the tree becomes slippery!

This adage na die I swear..

BeeBeeOoh:
This adage na die I swear..

Nija matter don tire me!

byrron:


Nija matter don tire me!

E taya me pass sef

The chicken have come home to roost.

May the innocent blood of those protesters whom some people here on nairaland were cheering over their death avenge for them. I believe in karma.

This bubari government is going down

When did MASSOB/IPOB protests become violent? That already shows the Nigerian army are the real liers here.

Every perpetrator of this crime must be brought to justice.

"Amnesty's report is based on interviews with almost 200 people, alongside more than 100 photographs and 87 videos."

Now, the onus lies squarely on the military to prove IPOB is violent.

Liars from the pit of hell.

byrron:
On the destined day of the monkey's death, all branches of the tree becomes slippery!

You got me here Bro.
Rip our heroes, your sacrifice will not be in vain.

Lol!


Make una greet ojukwu for us!

Biafraudexposed com and debunk (selfservice on) this one

buari's daura govt will soon answer for their crimes in ICC.

gunuvi:
ICC loading for some bast.ards after 2019

add dis number of pro biafrans killed with dat of shiites ova d past one year n u will get d sence of how dis regime is covered in blood of d innocents.

AND NOW THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT IS OUT.

PLEASE TWEET AND EMAIL TO UTTERMOST ENDS OF THIS EARTH

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/11/peaceful-pro-biafra-activists-killed-in-chilling-crackdown/

I will say only one thing... HA ABAGO!!!!!!

I hope justice is served appropriately to the butchers and the commanders at all level.

Nigeria is being ruled in d blood of the innocent. who still wonder why dis country is an abysmal failure?

The blood of peaceful protesters will forever hunt Nigeria

The British contraption of different ethnic groups who were forced together against their will in the name of a non existent 'one Nigeria'

Hmm, one thing I have come to learn in Nigeria; in every rumour there is an element of truth. Nigeria army recently is misbehaving n corrupt

Hope amnesty saw this too?


http://thenationonlineng.net/two-policemen-nine-others-die-in-pro-biafra-protest-in-onitsha/


Peaceful protesters attacking security officials? In the US try attacking an officer and you'll get some loads in your head.



Amnesty intl should spare me that shiit!

What have you done about us military harassing civilians in Iraq? Libya then? Etc??


Below is what a peaceful protest looks like. I'm not a tribalist. I'm just telling amnesty to keep shut her damn mouth.