The United States Government has asked the Federal Government to restrict the use of the newly acquired Super Tucano aircraft to the northern part of the country where Boko Haram terrorists have engaged the Nigerian state in a decade-long insurgency killing thousands and displacing millions.
Therefore, the Federal Government is precluded from deploying the equipment to the South.
The US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Jonathan Finer, who disclosed this at an event attended by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the terms of the agreement during the sale of the 12 Tucano aircraft were explicit.
Reacting to a question on whether the Tucano fighter planes might be deployed against secessionists in the South-East, Finer said the planes were an important platform for security, particularly in the North, expressing pleasure over the conclusion of the deal.
Finer said, “We are pleased to deepen our security cooperation with the Nigerian government. I think we made it very clear our expectations about this platform where it would be used and in the right way and we are always raising concerns when we have them and that it’s true with all our security partners around the world.
“This is an important platform for security, particularly in the North and we are pleased the transaction is finally concluded.”
Recall that the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, had in August sued U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the sale of attack planes that it says will be used to persecute its supporters.
IPOB, submitted a complaint against two of President Joe Biden’s top officials in a federal court in Washington on Saturday. The organization is asking a judge to direct Blinken and Austin to block the transfer of six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft to Nigeria’s air force and to seek the return of six that were recently delivered.
Nigeria’s government ordered the attack and reconnaissance planes to help it tackle an Islamist insurgency in the northeast of the country that has lasted more than a decade and claimed more than 30,000 lives. The Super Tucano propeller aircraft are equipped with precision-guided munitions and have been used for counterinsurgency operations in countries from Afghanistan to Colombia.
Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein filed the case on behalf of IPOB and 10 unidentified individuals based in the secessionists’ heartland in southeastern Nigeria. The plaintiffs “reasonably fear that the A-29 Super Tucano aircraft will be used imminently to kill or maim them physically or to destroy their property,” according to the complaint.
IPOB says it’s a peaceful movement working to establish an independent nation to defend the Igbo ethnic group against discrimination by the federal government in the West African country. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari accuses the organization of waging a violent campaign against state personnel and assets.
The lawsuit follows the capture of IPOB’s leader Nnamdi Kanu in June, who was abducted in Kenya and returned to Nigeria “in flagrant violation of international law,” according to the complaint. Kanu is in detention in Abuja, the capital city, awaiting the resumption of a treason trial he fled in 2017. Buhari’s administration had earlier proscribed IPOB as a terrorist group.
Nigerian security forces this year have kidnapped and killed numerous people suspected of supporting IPOB, according to the filing.
By allowing Nigeria to receive six Super Tucano planes on July 21, Blinken and Austin violated laws that are supposed to “shield citizens of foreign sovereigns from harm caused by United States weapons in the hands of security forces guilty of gross human rights violations,” the lawyers said.
IPOB’s “ultimate objective is peaceful means to obtain a Biafran sovereignty referendum under United Nations auspices,” Fein said by email.
