Musiliu Obanikoro
The All Progressives Congress has asked the International Criminal Court in The Hague, to investigate President Goodluck Jonathan and eight others as regards an audio file which allegedly captured some Peoples Democratic Party’s leaders giving orders to a military officer on how to rig the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State in their favour.
Apart from Jonathan, others named as accused persons in the petition are Minister of State for Foreign Affairs II, Musiliu Obanikoro; Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose; former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, Iyiola Omisore; and Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh,
Others are Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Army’s 32nd Artillery Brigade Commander, Akure, Ondo State, Brig. Gen. Aliyu Momoh; a member of the Federal House of Representatives, Abdulkareem; and the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan.
A copy of the petition dated March 25, 2015, read in part, “Essentially, the recording provides evidence of a clearly articulated strategy to militarise Ekiti and emasculate the opposition parties and their supporters as an approach to rigging the elections in favour of the PDP.
“The meeting was attended by top Federal Government officials including two ministers responsible for the Armed Forces and Police. Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who was then Minister of State for Defence, and Mr. Jelili Adesiyan, the serving Minister for Police Affairs, were senior government officials, who actively participated in the discussions.”
A copy of the petition sighted by our correspondent on Thursday was said to have been submitted to the office of the ICC prosecutor, Ms. Fatou Bensouda.
It was submitted on behalf of the APC by a United Kingdom-based human rights lawyer, Mr. Olukunle Omojuwa.
An electronic mail containing an attachment of the petition, which was forwarded to our correspondent, showed that the same mail was originally sent to the information desk of the ICC prosecutor on Thursday.
Meanwhile, our correspondent contacted the Public Information Officer of the ICC, Florence Olara, on Thursday to confirm if the court had received the APC’s petition,
Olara, who said she needed to confirm from the concerned department of the court, had yet to revert to our correspondent as she promised as of the time this report was filed at about 6pm (Nigerian time) on Thursday.
The petitioner alleged that the scenario captured in the audio file and the events that followed had elements of torture, deprivation of physical liberty, persecution and murder.
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