Tuesday, dozens of persons killed in the reprisal launched by the military were merely dumped in front of a hospital in Maiduguri.
Men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) were believed to have opened fire, killed more than 30 civilians, and torched many houses after a bomb planted by Boko Haram members exploded and killed an army lieutenant.
But the JTF spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, in a statement, denied the allegation.
He advised those he called sympathisers of Boko Haram to be "wary of rumours by the terrorists and their sympathisers in furtherance of their evil activities."
But Musa denied that soldiers killed civilians and attributed the resulting fires on buildings, to the single bomb that targeted soldiers earlier that morning. He did not explain how the dozens of civilians were shot dead.
“On Monday, 8 October 2012 about 0715 hours (7:15am) a Joint Task Force (JTF) patrol vehicle was attacked by Boko Haram terrorists at Gwange area, using roadside remote controlled Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
"The attack led to the death of an officer and two soldiers with others severely injured. The incident occurred within 400 metres radius where a similar IED had earlier exploded killing one soldier and injuring others with multiple fractures and severe burns on October 1, 2012, " he said in the statement.
Musa, while insisting that there was no civilian casualty from the incident, drew the attention of the members of the public to the effects of the IEDs, noting that they contain acid and highly inflammable substances, which lead to blast and thermal effects.
According to him, "It was also discovered that some of the houses and shops in the area had IEDs which went off as a result of the fire triggered by the initial bomb blast."
He, however, appealed to the public to report any strange person or suspicious movement of persons in their area to law enforcement agents, adding that the task force is committed to protecting lives and property of law abiding citizens and would not relent until the terrorists are defeated.
The army said its men did not kill any civilian in Monday's attack even as it claimed that the 100 buildings soldiers were accused of destroying were razed by the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which were stockpiled.
The hospital, overwhelmed by the scale of the violence and the resultant number of casualties, has stopped admitting more corpses into its mortuary, “as everywhere (inside the mortuary) is over-full now”. The relations of the victims have been turned back with their corpses.
Maiduguri has been the operational headquarters of the deadly Islamist sect, Boko Haram, which holds the city in the grip of bloody violence. Many persons said the army had in the past engaged in such mindless killing of unarmed persons.
“This is just the latest in a number of incidents in Maiduguri where soldiers have allegedly committed serious abuses, including extrajudicial killings of community members following Boko Harm attacks,” said Eric Guttschuss, who studies Nigeria for Human Rights Watch.
A bombing Monday morning by suspected members of Boko Haram, which killed a lieutenant, sparked the violent retaliation. The troops opened fire with assault rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on armoured personnel carriers on Gwange area, a busy neighbourhood in Maiduguri, near the local headquarters of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Over 50 shops and homes were burnt in the Monday attacks with the bodies of civilians lying alongside the streets. The dead carried no weapons, nor any sign they belonged to the sect or posed a threat to the soldiers. Footage aired yesterday afternoon by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) showed people trying to splash water on their burning homes after the attack, while others fearfully raised their hands above their heads as a government motorcade sped past.
Tuesday, a worker at the Maiduguri General Hospital told the AP that officials collected 32 corpses after the attack.
The hospital turned away other bodies as its mortuary was full, the worker said, with bodies of the dead on the floors for hours. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity, scared about reprisals from the soldiers. The worker said the remaining bodies were taken to the nearby Umaru Shehu Ultra-Modern Hospital.
But whether or not the people were killed by soldiers, a Lagos-based human rights group, Access to Justice (AJ), has called on President Goodluck Jonathan and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, to fish out those who allegedly engaged in the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Maiduguri.
In a statement by its Executive Director, Joseph Otteh, the group stated that except justice is done, government’s war against terrorism would be “pointless, unprincipled, duplicitous and dishonest.”
“Government should establish clearly and unequivocally that it will not tolerate the killing of innocent Nigerians arbitrarily or summarily.
“If government does not set this example now, more indiscriminate killings will follow in the near future as soldiers and even members of the public will feel that they too are entitled to kill,” it stated.
“The shootings by the soldiers were mindless, irrational, and completely unjustifiable. The soldiers were sent to the streets and communities to protect the lives of residents from terrorists, maintain security and order and give residents the confidence to go from their houses and pursue their daily activities without feeling that their lives would be in danger,” the statement added
| Posted: at | |
winace
ajanni
Unikpearl
dallasp
TRENDING GISTS 
LOL Lady Organizes Photoshoot With Bag Of Rice Due To High Cost (Video)
Nigerian And His Fiancee's Wedding Called Of After Couple Was Arrested For $3.123m Fraud
King Charles Of England Hosts Cuppy Otedola at Buckingham Palace (Photo)
JUST IN: Abducted Anambra Catholic Priest Regains Freedom
Pandemonium As Corpers Scamper For Safety As Cow Invades Their Camp (Video)