Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana said former president Goodluck Jonathan quickly conceded victory to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 because he was afraid of a possible arrest and prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Falana said this in a statement which was made available to journalists at the inauguration of the League of Anambra Professionals Legal Defence Initiative over the weekend.
According to Falana:
“Before the 2015 elections, the ICC warned that if there was any problem in Nigeria, anybody who was responsible would be arrested and charged like former President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote D’Ivoire. That was the atmosphere under which President Goodluck conceded victory.”
Falana added that in the new world order, it is impossible for any leader or dictator to annul a national election like military President Ibrahim Babangida did in 1993.
Babangida annulled arguably Nigeria’s freest and fairest election to this day. The election was won by late Chief MKO Abiola who was recently recognized as the winner by the federal government.
“Unlike in 1993 when the military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, successfully annulled an election, that is no longer possible.
“Whoever does that now will end up in The Hague. He is likely to be tried for crimes against humanity because if you annul an election, you are likely to have a monumental violence in the country which will lead to crimes against humanity.”
Falana is not making sense and he is not the spokes person for ICC. It is unfortunate that such a senior lawyer could be making fallacious statements just to seek notice.