The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed disappointment over the manner in which the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mr Karim Khan, was handling its petition on religious violence and extremism, which has led to the deaths of many Christians in the country.

A statement signed by CAN President, Revd. Samson Ayokunle, General Secretary, Barr. Joseph Daramola, and Director Legal and Public Affairs, Barr. Comfort Ochigbue, on Friday, queried the silence that followed Khan’s visit to Nigeria both from the side of the Federal government and the ICC prosecutor.

While lamenting that the number of Christians killed in the country has continued to increase, CAN noted that it was still hopeful justice would be served by the ICC despite the writing on the wall which depicts Khan was playing political games and unwilling to engage with victims of atrocity.

The statement partly read: “At the International Criminal Court, the situation of Nigeria has since 11 December 2020 been in limbo between the closing of the Preliminary Examination stage and the making of a request for leave to open an investigation.

“There is a great deal of explaining to be done for this state of affairs. Yet, Mr Khan only met with members of the government of Nigeria, and seems not to have discussed this.

“We note that at least one of the individuals that he met has been identified to the prosecutor’s office as a potential candidate for prosecution. Mr Khan is clearly playing a political game and is prioritising relations with the government of Nigeria.

“CAN is dismayed that the word ‘victim’ only appeared twice in his statement, and both times they were in bland stock phrases.

“This is no accident, it reveals that this prosecutor is not interested in standing up for victims of atrocity, but is trying to unburden himself of the Nigeria situation.

“We note the peculiarity of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court declaring, in the Nigerian context, that ‘As I have repeatedly stated, the meaningful realisation of the vision set out in the Statute can only be achieved by deepening cooperation and by finding common ground wherever possible, even in difficult circumstances’.

“Mr Khan’s predecessor took ten years November 2010 – December 2020 to decide that she should seek leave from the Pre Trial-Chamber to open an investigation into Nigeria. The excuse she gave for this long delay was that this was due to ‘the priority given by my Office in supporting the Nigerian authorities in investigating and prosecuting these crimes domestically’. In the final months of her tenure, the-then prosecutor finally gave up and determined that the Nigerian authorities had been ‘inactive’ in relation to their

“Complementarity responsibilities and she was forced to seek leave to open an investigation: ‘because of the absence of relevant proceedings or, where proceedings are asserted to have been conducted, the information available did not demonstrate any tangible, concrete, and progressive steps by the authorities to address allegations against members of the NSF’.

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“This was on 11 December 2020. On 20 April 2022, nearly a year after his appointment, we have the spectacle of Mr Khan showing up in Nigeria trying to revive his predecessor’s failed attempts to get Nigeria to meet its Complementarity obligations.”

It continued: “Two Prosecutors of the International Criminal Court have now been colluding with the government of Nigeria to use the principle of Complementarity to evade their own responsibilities in the face of international crimes, and to deny justice to the victims of religious and other violence in Nigeria.

“For years now, our Christian community has borne the brunt of the religious violence in this country. We have, in a communication that was ignored by the ICC prosecutor, pointed out flaws in the approach taken by his predecessor in relation to Nigeria. These flaws are the result of profound misunderstanding of the role of religion in the violence that has engulfed this country.

“In the time that the two prosecutors of the International Criminal Court have been leisurely considering the Nigeria situation from November 2010 to the present, a conservative assessment of the number of Christians who have lost their lives because of their religious identity would be more than 25,000.

“The number of Christians killed for their faith recorded by World Watch Research in 2013 was 612, in 2014 it was 2484, in 2015 it jumped to 4028, in 2016 it dropped to 695, in 2017 it rose to 2000, in 2018 it rose again to 3731, in 2019 it was 1350, in 2020 it jumped again to 3910 and then again in 2021 to 4650.

“There is no way to count the numbers of Nigerian Christians who have been wounded, abused, and traumatised, let alone the massive property destruction and forced displacement of Christians from their homelands.

“Of course, Moslems and other communities have been affected too, and they also must not be ignored in the Prosecutor’s apparent attempt to wash his hands of Nigeria. But CAN is an umbrella organisation representing all the Christian denominations in this country; we are only mandated to address the disproportionately victimised and persecuted Christians of this country.

“Mr Khan’s statement indicates that like his predecessor, he will not take with any seriousness the matter of the persecution of Nigerian Christians. We will continue to challenge vigorously,” CAN stated.

The Star