The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has confirmed that it is considering a petition submitted to it by a senior lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) over alleged diversion of arms procurement funds and crimes against humanity committed by former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and others.
The ICC revealed this in a letter dated February 1, 2016 with reference: OTP-CR-32/16 and signed by Mark P. Dillon, Head of Information & Evidence Unit of the ICC.
“The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court acknowledges receipt of your documents/letter. This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the Office.
“We will give consideration to this communication, as appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
Falana had in a petition dated January 19, 2016 requested the ICC to “investigate allegations of crimes against humanity committed against the Nigerian people by some former and serving military as well as public officials and private persons who engaged in the criminal diversion of $8 billion earmarked to procure equipment for the armed forces to fight insurgency.”
Dasuki who has been in detention since last year is already facing trial in Nigeria while other suspects like spokesman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, former acting chairman of the party, Haliru Bello Mohammed and many other bigwigs are also in court.
Okonjo-Iweala has not been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which is probing the arms procurement scandal. She had launched a massive attack on Falana for involving her in the scandal, calling him an Integrity Challenged Charlatan (ICC).
