President Muhammadu Buhari
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has denied claim that it
invited President Muhammadu Buhari as its keynote speaker during its
20th anniversary because he had the highest rating on integrity.
A lawmaker, Abdulmumin Jibrin in an interview on a national
television in July claimed that the ICC invited Buhari as its keynote
speaker, because he is the only president, that achieved the highest
indices on integrity in a check carried out by security agencies from
twenty European countries and the United States of America on both
serving and former African leaders.
This message was paraphrased by supporters of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) to read ‘Buhari showed me a document he brought back from
ICC, Hague. A top-secret Background Check on Global leaders, past and
present. He is the only leader rated XXX1 on Integrity, the Highest
Rating Globally. That’s why he is the only World Leader on the ICC floor
to address them - Abdulmumin Jibrin, APC Kano’.
The post was shared on social media platforms by loyalists of the
president, including Lauretta Onochie, Buhari’s Personal Assistant on
Social Media.
But ICC spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah in an email exchange via the
Public Affairs unit of the court said “The International Criminal Court
(“ICC” or the “Court”) is not involved in any integrity or background
check of world leaders,”
He added that it has been standard practice for the ICC to invite
Heads of State one at a time for certain high-level events, such as
anniversary commemorations but also the opening of the judicial year,
adding that “this is because of logistical and protocol reasons involved in hosting dignitaries at that level”.
He also disclosed that other heads of state have been invited and
have participated in high level events organised by the Court in the
past, stressing that President Buhari was invited as keynote speaker for
the commemorations of the 20th anniversary.
El Abdallah said President Buhari was not the only leader invited
to the event but that ‘Nigeria was the only State represented by its
President’.
He added that more than 30 other States were represented at the
level of national Senates and Parliaments chiefs, as well as Ministers
of Foreign Affairs and Justice.
The presidency declined to confirm or refute the claim.
‘Ask the man who told you,’ the spokesman of the president, Femi Adesina said.
We have reached out to Jibrin to clarify his claim and tell us his
source but no response yet. Onochie has also refused to response to
questions about the claim she shared.
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