Imported User:
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday hinted at Nigeria’s resolve to work closely with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to check impunity and terror unleashed by the Boko Haram extremist sect in the country.
“Nigeria does not encourage impunity, and will cooperate with the ICC to check it,” Jonathan told the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, when she paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja
This is just as Bensouda told State House correspondents after the meeting that she was at the Villa to brief Jonathan “on the preliminary examinations that have been taking place by the office of the prosecutor since four to five years now, regarding the trouble in the middle belt area and, most recently, with the Boko Haram”.
Earlier, Jonathan had said that his government will be “open to you and have nothing to hide,” and added that he had directed the Attorney-General and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SSG) to ensure that the ICC Chief Prosecutor receives all the support and cooperation required to make her visit to Nigeria a fruitful one.
He drew Mrs. Bensouda’s attention to the ICC’s involvement in five situations in Africa, with the attendant criticism from the continent, and called on the Chief Prosecutor to use her experience in the court to resolve potential areas of conflict.
Earlier, the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, had told Jonathan that she was in Nigeria on the invitation of the government to discuss cooperation and the Court’s work in the country over the past five years. Bensouda said Nigeria was not under any investigation.
