Army, Shi’ites squabble over allegation to exhume bodies in mass grave

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shi’ites, has raised the alarm that the Nigerian Army is planning to exhume bodies of their members buried in a mass grave in Kaduna so as to reduce the number of dead bodies from the deadly clash that occurred between the sect and the Army in December 2015 in Zaria, Kaduna State.

However, the Army, in a swift reaction, decribed the allegation as a concoction of lies designed to project the Nigerian Army in bad light by the IMN.

The IMN made the accusation in a statement signed by its spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, adding that ‎since the disclosure of the existence of a mass grave at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry by officials of the Kaduna State government, the Nigerian Army, who initially tried to debunk the existence of a mass grave in their testimonies has been uncomfortable.

The statement reads in part: “Reports reaching the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) have it that some unscrupulous people, who were behind the massacre of hundreds of unarmed citizens and their secret burial in a mass grave, are planning to secretly and unilaterally exhume the corpses in an effort to lower the figure of those buried therein in the event of a subsequent full blown international investigation of their crime.

“When it became obvious through confessions of officers of the state government that mass grave exists, and that officers and men of the Nigerian Army were fully involved in the construction of the mass grave as well as the secret burial of hundreds of IMN members they killed, the Nigerian Army officials have been working out how they could at least significantly put down the number of corpses buried in the grave. As a follow-up testimony at the Judicial Commission, they bluntly refused to acknowledge the hundreds killed and buried in the mass grave, claiming that they handed over only “a few” to state officials for burial.

“The Islamic Movement in Nigeria wishes to make it categorically clear that the site of the mass grave where the Kaduna state government admitted that it had buried 347 of those killed by the Nigerian military in Zaria last December is a crime scene, hence any attempt to tamper with it would not only be taken as a sacrilege and unacceptable, but also as an attempt to tamper with an important exhibit, which is a serious crime in itself.”

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Reacting to the allegation, the Nigerian Army in a statement by the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations‎, 1 Division Headquarters, Kaduna, Colonel Abdul Usman, said the allegation is a figment of their jaundiced imagination and a campaign of calumny against the Army.

According to Col. Usman, the allegation is a product of IMN’s jaundiced imagination and a campaign of calumny against the Army.

The statement read: “The Army strongly and categorically reject the IMN’s unfounded n spurious allegation. It is simply a concoction of lies and deliberate effort by the IMN to portray the Nigerian Army’s image negatively.

“The Nigerian Army will like to make it abundantly clear that, it has never contemplated such act at anytime. It’s of no relevance whatsoever. we are focused on discharging our constitutional duty as a professional military force. We expect any responsible media to double check such weighty allegations before going to press. Nigeria’s national security and interest must never be toyed with.

“The Nigerian Army as a law abiding entity had already stated its facts regarding the December 12-14 incident in Zaria before the Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba led Judicial Commission of Inquiry. For the avoidance of doubt, the commission had on Wednesday 27th April, 2016 visited all the sites of the incident in Zaria including the grave site in Kaduna. It was widely aired. It is not the duty of the Army to guard any public grave site other than our own designated military cemeteries.”

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