The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) wants the United Nations (UN) to withdraw Nigeria’s membership from the international body.
IMN said the Federal Government, through the military, violated the relevant articles of the UN when an act of genocide was allegedly committed against the Shiites in December 2015.
In a statement by the spokesman of IMN, Mallam Ibrahim Musa, yesterday, the Islamic group said that, “instead of providing president Buhari a megaphone, the United Nations should be expelling Nigeria from membership under Article 6 of the United Nations Charter.”
According to Musa: “the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should be referring the president and his henchmen like Army Chief of Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai and Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, to investigate for complicity in genocide.
“The UNSC should also be imposing an arms embargo on Nigeria under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter until the Zaria genocide is independently investigated and culprits brought to book.
“These sanctions, against Nigeria would honour twin objectives of the United Nations: to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained; and, promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to…religion.”
Besides, the IMN official also pointed out, “in as much as the UN is to be blamed for its silence on Zaria massacre, the silence exhibited by the National Assembly in Abuja is even more confounding. Of recent, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki is reported to be decrying the military’s attempt to list IPOB among terrorist groups. We wonder where Saraki was when a worse treatment was visited on Shia Muslim minorities since December 2015 by the Army.”
The Shiites further argued that “while the suffering and persecution of Burma’s Muslim Rohingya has captured headlines and the attention of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, Nigeria’s far worse oppression of Shia Muslim minorities has been largely ignored.”
He said credible human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human rights watch and Islamic Human rights commission have on several occasions
condemned the action displayed by the army on unarmed civilians, but to the chagrin of people of conscience, the UN body has kept mute on the issue.
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