Alleged hate message: Buhari takes Patience Jonathan to ICC

All Progressives Congress, APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is to report First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan to the International Criminal Court, ICC for allegedly mobilising a hate campaign against him. Buhari in the petition to the criminal court claimed that Mrs. Jonathan, whose husband is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP asked supporters of her husband “stone” anyone who chants the APC’s change mantra. The call by Mrs. Jonathan was reportedly made at a rally in Calabar, Cross River State during a PDP political rally last week.

 

The APC Presidential Campaign Council, APCPCO in a statement issued yesterday said the letter of complaint against the First Lady was signed by the Director General of APCPCO, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi, will be formerly dispatched to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police (IG) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among relevant authorities today. A statement by the campaign organization yesterday quoted Amaechi as saying that “Change, as the entire country must know by now, is the slogan of the APC – the rallying cry of a political party that wishes to bring hope of greater and better things to come for Nigeria and Nigerians. By her statement, Mrs. Jonathan was clearly calling on PDP supporters in Calabar to attack supporters and campaigners of the APC in the state.”

 

The APCPCO’s statement likened some of Mrs. Jonathan’s inciting comments and conduct during this political campaign season, to those of Mrs Simone Gbagbo, wife of the former president of Cote D’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, prior to that country’s 2010 election. The party recalled that the ICC indicted Mrs. Gbagbo for her part in planning to perpetrate brutal attacks including murder, rape, and sexual violence, on her husband’s political opponents in the wake of the 2010 election. APCPCO said that Mrs. Jonathan does not occupy any formal office in the Nigerian government, adding that the position of First Lady is not recognized by the Nigerian constitution.

 

 It further said that Gbagbo’s case showed the ICC’s awareness of how someone beyond formal governmental and military hierarchies can be identified as responsible for serious international crimes. The APCPCO pointed out that “Jonathan’s incontrovertible hate speech not only contravenes the laws of the land, but also goes completely against the Abuja Peace Accord jointly signed by the two presidential candidates, General Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan as a gesture aimed at forestalling violence before, during and after the 2015 elections. “PDP supporters in the state who may not know better could easily yield themselves to the First Lady’s admonition and embark on a process of wanton stoning and other attacks against APC members”, it quoted Ameachi as saying. The APCPCO also called on the Nigeria Police to put in place emergency measures to protect the life and property of APC members in Calabar and the entire Cross River State.

 

Vanguard.