A United States law firm, Fein & Delvalle PLLC on Saturday asked a US federal district court to reconsider it’s order dismissing a suit instituted against the President Muhammadu Buhari administration over the killing of pro-Biafra agitators.
The firm accused the Buhari administration of gross human rights violation in it’s handling of the Biafra agitation.
In a statement sent to Sundiata Post signed by Bruce Fein and W. Bruce DelValle, the firm said:
“Today, the law firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC asked a federal district court to reconsider and reverse its prior MEMORANDUM OPINON AND ORDER dismissing a lawsuit to redress the Nigerian Government of President Muhammadu Buhari’s mass killings and torture of unarmed and defenceless pro Biafra activists peacefully protesting their religious and ethnic persecution.
In filing a MOTION TO RECONSIDER in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in DOE 1, ET AL. v. TUKUR YUSUF BURATAI, ET AL, Civil Action No. 17-1033 (DLF), Fein & DelValle underscored that the MEMORANDUM OPINION’S counter-textual, counter-historical, counter-logical interpretation of foreign-official immunity for crimes against humanity, i.e., extrajudicial killings and torture, makes the Torture Victims Protection Act a dead letter.
“The MEMORANDUM OPINON rewards President Buhari’s authorised murders and torture of pro Biafra activists by blessing these twin universal crimes with foreign-official immunity. The MEMORANDUM OPINON will embolden the Nigerian Government headed by President Buhari to further engage in human rights outrages against unarmed and defenseless pro Biafra citizens. It will instruct other tyrants in Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, Burma, and elsewhere to equal or better Buhari’s example as regards extrajudicial killing, torture and terror.“In sum, the District Court’s crabbed interpretation of the TVPA promotes rather than deters government-sponsored crimes against humanity in Nigeria and globally. It makes the law and engine of injustice rather than a paladin of justice. Mr. Fein stated: “This MEMORANDUM OPINION will not stand. It is a dagger in the back of human rights law that rejected a ‘following orders’ defense to crimes against humanity in the trials of Nazi War criminals at Nuremberg and Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem.”
They continued: “Our Law Firm, Fein and Delvalle PLLC, thanks the doggedness and resilience of the EKWENCHE Group, Chicago and other partners based here in USA and in Nigeria. For purpose of records and clarity, our law firm is hired and retained by the EKWENCHE Group which also pays for our professional services in the named suit and related others or other matters thereto.”
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