ICC Prosecutor To Begin Investigation Into The Abduction Of Nigerian School Children

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor is ready to receive authorization from the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court to begin an investigation into cases of kidnapping of school kids by bandits in different areas of Northern Nigeria.

Similarly, the closure of schools, the “persistent failure of Nigerian authorities”; both the federal and state to put an end to the abduction will be investigated.

This was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare stated that the ICC prosecutor’s moves is as a result of a petition forwarded to the court by SERAP.

In the petition dated 4 September 2021, SERAP told the ICC prosecutor, Mr Karim A. A. Khan, QC, to “push for those suspected to be responsible and complicit in the commission of these serious crimes, to be invited and tried by the ICC.”

SERAP stated that, “The severe and lifelong harms that result from depriving children the right to education satisfy the gravity of harm threshold under the Rome Statute.”

The ICC prosecutor in a letter with reference number OTP-CR-363/21, and date, 22 October 2021 confirmed to SERAP that “the criteria for opening an investigation into a string of abductions and closure of schools in some parts of Nigeria have been met.”

The ICC prosecutor intends seeking an investigation after scrutinizing a preliminary examination of the issues of abduction of children in Nigeria.

A three-member panel of ICC pre-trial judges will decide if they will grant the prosecutor’s request, the moment it gets to them, to enable the ICC be fully involved, as an international court of last resort.