Insecurity: ICC to Investigate School Children’s Abduction

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has announced that the International Criminal Court is set to investigate the series of abductions of Nigerian school children, especially in Northern Nigeria.

This was made known in a statement signed by it’s Deputy Director, SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare on Sunday which said, “The severe and lifelong harms that result from depriving children the right to education satisfy the gravity of harm threshold under the Rome Statute.”

According to the statement, the investigation will begin after the Prosecutor gets authorisation from the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court, the focus of the research will be the persistent failure of the Federal and State government to bring an end to the abductions.

A statement by the Punch revealed that SERAP had sent in the petition in September 2021 to the ICC prosecutor, Mr Karim A. A. Khan, and received a response from the Head of the Information and Evidence Unit, Mark P. Dillon, on behalf of the ICC Prosecutor.

“By this decision, the ICC prosecutor has taken a significant step toward ensuring that those suspected to be responsible for grave crimes against Nigerian schoolchildren are exposed, and held to account.

“The victims of these crimes deserve justice. Impartial justice and reparation will deal a decisive blow to impunity of perpetrators, and improve access of Nigerian children to education. SERAP will work closely with the ICC to achieve these important objectives,” Oluwadare said in the statement.