Shi’ites: Why we side-lined Police –Army

The Nigerian Army, on Monday, claimed it moved against members of the Shi’ites Islamic group in Zaria during the bloody on December 12 to 14, 2015, because the police wouldn’t have been able to handle them.

This was disclosed by the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 1 Mechanized Division, Kaduna, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade, when he appeared before the commission of inquiry established by the Kaduna State Government to probe the Shi’ites/Army clash.

During his testimony before the commission, GOC insisted that members of the Shiites attacked soldiers with dangerous weapons on that day, adding that the situation prompted his men to apply relative force in order to restore law and order in Zaria.

Responding to the Chairman of the commission who asked him why the Police was not called since it was a civil matter, the GOC insisted that the police had no enough manpower to curtail the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, members. He also insisted that Zaria fell under his jurisdiction and it was his responsibility to maintain law and order in the city.

In a related development, the Army also denied handing over 347 corpses to the Kaduna State Government in the aftermath of the bloody clash.

The Army insisted that only few corpses were handed over to the state government, contrary to the evidence given before the commission by the Secretary to the State Government, Malam Babarabe Abbas Lawal.

Lawal had at the previous sitting of the commission, said not less than 347 corpses from the clash were given mass burial in Kaduna few days after the bloody clash. Also, the Director General of Interfaith, Muhammad Namadi Musa, who said he led the burial exercise of the unknown corpses that lasted between 12 midnight and 5:00am in the morning, agreed with the figure.

Read also: Scores killed as Fulani herdsmen invade Enugu community

However, the Army, which refused to release the figure(s) it handed over to the government while testifying before the Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba’s Commission on the Army/Shiites clash on Monday, maintained that there only few corpses.

A medical officer from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria, Major Uche Agulana, said at the hearing that he handed over few corpses to the representative of the state government.

When asked to give the actual number of corpses he handed over, Agulana, said he did  not keep the record of the deaths, adding that he was busy at that time “trying to save lives that were brought into the hospital.”

 

 

 

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