A former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (retd) and his Nigerian Air Force counterpart, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar (retd) will soon face criminal charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings during their time as security chiefs.
He is also believed to have ordered the October 20, 2020 shooting of innocent civilians who were protesting at the Lekki Toll Gate and sanctioned the extrajudicial massacres in Oyigbo, an Igbo settlement in Rivers State.
Atafure said, “Meanwhile, civilian fatalities from airstrikes in conflict areas across Nigeria were a recurring dilemma under Abubakar. In April 2020, at least 17 people, mostly women and their children playing under mango trees were said to have been killed when a fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force ‘accidentally’ dropped a bomb on Sakotoku village in Damboa Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State.
He noted that the centre had been in touch with the ICC and the coming days, the retired Air Marshal would be invited and prosecuted.
“So far Abubakar has not accounted for all the crashes involving NAF jets under his watch. This is despite spending billions of naira for the procurement of training and fighter jets,” he said.