The Nigerian Army today denied a report carried by this website to the effect that military authorities planned to exhume and take away bodies of some of the hundreds of Shiites shot dead in a confrontation with the military last December.
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In a statement, the Army accused the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), the umbrella organization for Shiites, of being behind the report, adding that the allegation that the military was desperate “to prevent the uncovering of the hundreds of bodies buried” at a site near Zaria, Kaduna State, was “simply a figment of [the IMN’s] jaundiced imagination and a campaign of calumny against the Army.”
Dismissing the report, the Army statement described it as an “unfounded and spurious allegation,” adding that it was “a concoction of lies and [a] deliberate effort by the IMN to portray the Nigerian Army's image negatively.”
The statement, signed by Colonel Abdul Usman, the deputy director of Army Public Relations, stressed that the Army never contemplated exhuming and removing any bodies, declaring such an act as “of no relevance whatsoever.” According to the military spokesman, the Army was “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.
He added that the Nigerian Army had already stated it version of events “regarding the December 12-14 [2015] 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 gravesite in Kaduna. It was widely aired. It is not the duty of the Army to guard any public gravesite other than our own designated military cemeteries.
“It appears that the IMN's desire is to whip up public sympathy not minding their crimes over several years against the people of Zaria as testified by the parties at the just concluded sitting of the commission.”
Colonel Usman said the IMN “failed to state her facts or opinion if any as regards the incident of December 12th and 14th 2015 before the judicial commission of inquiry.”
The military statement urged Nigerians to disregard the report of its plan to take away bodies, assuring that “Nigerian Army will continue to safeguard the lives and property of all citizens in every part of our great country. That is our mission.”
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