Double jeopardy of fleeing Boko Haram victims

Reports said that the pre-dawn raid of the area known as Church Village, Dagba in the Durumi settlement of Abuja was carried out by soldiers and other security operatives. Dagba is a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled their homes in Gwoza local government area of Borno State, when the town fell to […]

Reports said that the pre-dawn raid of the area known as Church Village, Dagba in the Durumi settlement of Abuja was carried out by soldiers and other security operatives. Dagba is a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled their homes in Gwoza local government area of Borno State, when the town fell to Boko Haram insurgents. There is some dispute whether the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) has designated the area as a camp for IDPs.
One of the Dagba resident wounded in the attack, Ishaku Amos, said that the security personnel descended on their homes while they slept and began shooting and arresting people who tried to run. Amos, who makes a living by carrying passengers in a tricycle, said he was sleeping in his makeshift hut when he heard shots. He said he was among some 146 people arrested and taken in military trucks to the Lungi Barracks in Asokoro, where they were interrogated. According to him, 109 of them were released the following day while the rest were detained for further interrogation. Amos said they were only asked their names, occupation and how long they had resided in the village.
It is not clear what triggered the soldiers’ mission, which is reminiscent of a previous episode in the Apo area of Abuja when a detachment of troops and operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) opened fire on menial job seekers in an uncompleted building, killing seven of them and tagging them as being Boko Haram members.
In the latest incident, the victims fled Gwoza because of Boko Haram insurgency only to face similar fate in the hands of security forces in environment they believed would be safer. A community leader among the victims, Zubairu Mohammed, said it was an act of injustice meted out on his people who eke a living as artisans, tricycle and commercial motorcycle operators.
Reacting to media reports on the incident, spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Olajide Laleye, said that there was indeed intelligence on some ‘terrorists’ relocating from Gwoza to some locations in Abuja. Although Laleye acknowledged that the army carried out an operation in the area, he alleged that residents of the area started firing at the troops first when the operation got underway. Laleye stated that two people, not three as reported, were killed.
In September last year seven persons, most of them tricycle operators and wheel-barrow pushers from different north, were killed by soldiers and men of the SSS in a joint operation at the Apo legislative quarters in Abuja, a sensational incident for which the National Human Rights Commission took the services to court on charges of extrajudicial killings and obtained judgment against them.  The Civil Rights Congress has called the killing of Gwoza IDPs in Abuja as extrajudicial.
It is amazing that in spite of the public anger against the quick-on-the-draw posture of the military in operations in predominantly civilian areas, and the legal ruling that rapped their conduct, soldiers under the guise of intelligence would still be involved in another controversial incident of the same nature. Even if the residents were noted for some untoward activities as was claimed of them, this is not enough for soldiers to go into the mode of shooting first and investigating later.
Obviously, the Dagba incident points to the conclusion that lessons have not been learnt from past experiences. As in the other cases before it, this unpleasant incident must be thoroughly investigated, by the services concerned and by the National Assembly.  No matter what the circumstances are, the security personnel must act within the confines of the law, and any act of impunity swiftly punished.