– The Nigerian army has been indicted in the killing of at least 347 members of the Shi’a Muslim group in Zaria
– The commission of inquiry, set up by the Kaduna state government recommended that the Maj. Gen. Oyebade should be prosecuted
– The commission said Oyebade ordered last December’s military operation that massacred at least 347 shiites without any rules of engagement
– The judicial panel faulted the mass burial of the victims without any autopsy
The commission of inquiry, set up by the Kaduna state government has indicted the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army’s 1st Division, Adeniyi Oyebade, and other senior army officers in the massacre of at least 347 members of the Shi’a Muslim group in Zaria last year December.
Oyebade was the one who authorized the operation which led to the massacre of the 347 civilians.
The panel’s report was submitted to Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Friday, but its details are yet to be made public.
Premium Times reports that the commission of inquiry said the army officers should be prosecuted for the attack.
Last year, there was a violent clash between the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and the Nigerian army which left hundreds of members of the shi’ite sect dead and many more injured, while over 250 were clamped in detention, including their leader, El-Zakzaky.
Adeniyi Oyebade, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai and acting army chief of accounting and budget, Brig.-Gen. Adeyemi Adetayo
The Shiites claimed to have lost more than a thousand members in the attack.
A representative of the Kaduna state government told the commission of inquiry that 347 bodies were handed over by the army for a secret mass burial, but despite the evidence, the army claimed it killed only seven Shiites who blocked a public road and attempted to assassinate its chief, Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant general.
The commission of inquiry said though it lacked the cooperation of military officials to establish the actual number of those killed, it was able to confirm the death of 349 people, including a soldier.
“All the officers who testified were not forthcoming in providing full disclosure on the number of the dead, wounded and missing persons,” the report said.
The undignified treatment of the corpses
The commission of inquiry said it was unable to determine the causes of death of the deceased victims owing to the mass burial conducted by the state without any autopsy.
It added that the burial of all corpses of male and female Muslims in one grave violated Islamic traditions and other relevant burial laws of Kaduna state and Rule 115 of the Geneva Convention.
The panel’s recommendation
The judicial commission of inquiry which suggested ways of preventing similar incidents in future recommended that Oyebade and other yet-to-be-disclosed officers who participated in the operation “should be brought to trial before a court of competent jurisdiction”.
The panel accused Oyebade of deploying soldiers to carry out such a large scale operation without recourse to the chain of command.
The Chief of Army Staff, Buratai and his entourage, encountered members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in their hundreds along Sokoto Road, Zaria.
They tried persuading the protesters to leave the road but all their pleas failed and they decided to “shoot their way through the blockade” to prevent Buratai from being attacked.
The next day, Oyebade was said to have deployed troops to the shrine to arrest the leaders of the Shi’a group, which resulted in the killings.
In the damning verdict, the panel said the invasion of the IMN compound was carried out strictly on Oyebade’s order and without any
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