Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi has a lot to say on the International Criminal Court’s dismissal of an anonymous petition alleging that systemic kidnappings in Nigeria constituted crimes against humanity.
The AGF questioned procedure and sovereignty, and the decision to assign an unverified filing to a Pre-Trial Chamber without first establishing its competence.
The broader question is why Nigeria continues to attract the ICC’s attention. The answer is partly Nigeria’s own record.
The ICC has examined Nigeria since 2010, finding a reasonable basis to believe that both Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Persistent insecurity, mass abductions, allegations of abuses by security agencies, and weaknesses in domestic accountability create grounds for international scrutiny.
The central problem is not simply the ICC’s interest but the perception of an accountability gap.
