Shocking revelations on Army/Shi’ite clash

For the first time since last December’s tragic clash in Zaria, Kaduna State between the Nigeria Army and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria [IMN] better known as Shi’ites, the magnitude of loss of lives emerged for the first time from official sources. The Nigerian public heard for the first time that 347 bodies […]

For the first time since last December’s tragic clash in Zaria, Kaduna State between the Nigeria Army and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria [IMN] better known as Shi’ites, the magnitude of loss of lives emerged for the first time from official sources. The Nigerian public heard for the first time that 347 bodies were buried by officials at a mass grave on the Mando-Zaria road in Kaduna shortly after the clash.
Testifying before the Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Kaduna State Government, Secretary to the Kaduna State Government (SSG) Malam Lawal Balarabe Abbas said corpses were collected by state government and security officials and were given a mass burial on December 14, 2015. The SSG said 191 unidentified bodies from the Army Depot in Zaria and another 156 corpses from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) in Shika, Zaria, a total of 347, were conveyed to the burial site and were buried at midnight.
Kaduna State Government’s Director General of Interfaith Matters Engr. Muhammad Namadi Musa, who conducted the funeral processes, also said the burial lasted all night from 12 midnight to 5 am. Musa said his team left the Nigerian Army Depot in Zaria with three heavy duty trucks and 60 young officers who assisted them in offloading the corpses. At the ABUTH, he said five small trucks carried the 156 corpses, most of which were covered with black materials. He also said the corpses included those of women and children.
SSG Balarabe Abbas also told the Commission that the state government demolished the Gyallesu residence of IMN’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky as well as the movement’s Hussainiyya Centre; the Dembo Centre at Jushi and two other houses belonging to Alhaji Aminu Idris and Alhaji Tijjani Mohammed “for safety reasons.” He said the action was not borne out of any ulterior motives or political reasons and that a report from engineers which inspected the structures stated that the buildings were failing.
These shocking revelations have begun to put in sharper focus the scale of the tragedy that happened in Zaria last December. Even though it was publicly known that the clash was bloody, figures were hard to come by, especially from official sources. Neither the army, nor the police, nor the state government and not even the hospitals released figures of the scale of losses of lives, until last week. The Shi’ites have been saying that “thousands” of their members were killed but their figures were generally thought by media commentators to be inflated for propaganda reasons. Now that Kaduna State Government officials have revealed how many corpses were buried in mass graves in the aftermath of the clashes, there is reason to believe that the actual casualty figures were higher than that because some corpses would have been removed by family members and others.
It is not our intention to pre-empt the findings of the judicial commission of inquiry but to observe that the scale of the tragedy as it is now emerging gives added impetus to the need to find out the whole truth about the whole gory episode. That many women and children died alongside adult men in the episode needs to be properly explained. Either truly excessive and indiscriminate force was used that did not spare even women or children, or else someone used them as human shields, with drastic consequences. One way or another truth should be revealed by the commission of inquiry.
We think that IMN should reconsider its stance not to cooperate with the commission of inquiry. Rather than assume that it is a kangaroo panel, it is important to participate, since the proceedings are public. It is laudable that the Commission has left its doors open for IMN to make its submissions at any time while the public sittings last. IMN should grab the chance.