The General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army’s 1st Division, Adeniyi
Oyebade, a major general, authorized last December’s military operation
that massacred at least 347 members of the Shi’a Muslim group in Zaria,
and should be prosecuted, a judicial commission of inquiry into the
killings, has said in its final report.
The commission of inquiry, set up by the Kaduna State government,
indicted Mr. Oyebade and other senior army officers for the attack,
PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.
The General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army’s 1st Division,
Adeniyi Oyebade, a major general, authorized last December’s military
operation that massacred at least 347 members of the Shi’a Muslim group
in Zaria, and should be prosecuted, a judicial commission of inquiry
into the killings, has said in its final report.
The commission of inquiry, set up by the Kaduna State government,
indicted Mr. Oyebade and other senior army officers for the attack,
PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.
The panel’s report was submitted to Gov. Nasir El-Rufai on Friday, but its details are yet to be made public.
The killings drew worldwide condemnations, and several investigative
reports said hundreds of people were killed by government troops and
secretly buried in a mass grave in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The Shi’a Islamic movement said it lost more than a thousand members
in the attack that took place between December 12 and 14 at its
headquarters in Zaria.
A representative of the Kaduna State government told the commission
of inquiry that 347 bodies were handed over to 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.
It said troops only used force after it became clear that Mr. Buratai’s life was in danger.
The leader of the Shi’a group, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who was arrested
by soldiers during the operation, has remained in custody seven months
after.
The attacks were never condemned by the army hierarchy or the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
After his initial silence, Mr. Buhari later suggested during a
televised interview on December 30 that the victims invited the wrath of
the military upon themselves by “hitting the chest of generals”.
The report neither apportioned any blame to the federal government nor the army leadership, headed by Mr. Buratai.
Still, its details provide a glimpse into what was clearly a deadly
use of disproportionate military force in quelling a civil unrest. The
report confirmed that by any measure, the killings took place on a
horrific scale.
Shooting through the blockade
The panel said it was able to confirm the death of 349 people,
including a soldier. But it made clear it lacked the cooperation of
military officials to establish the actual number of those killed.
The commission of inquiry listed culpable actors for civil or
criminal prosecution and suggested ways of preventing similar incidents
in future.
A copy of the report, exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, said the
GOC of the Army’s 1st Division, Kaduna, Mr. Oyebade, deployed soldiers
to carry out such a large-scale operation without recourse to the chain
of command.
It recommends that Mr. 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 report, which contains 101 pages of correspondences and exhibits,
starts with a recap of what transpired on December 12, 2015.
It said the Chief of Army Staff, Mr. Buratai, left Dutse, Jigawa
State, at about 11:30 a.m for Zaria, where he was invited to be the
reviewing officer at the passing out parade of the 73 Regular Recruits
Intake of the Nigerian Army Depot.
Mr. Buratai and his entourage arrived at the Hussainiyya
Baqiyyatillah shrine of the Shi’a group along Sokoto Road, Zaria, around
2:20 p.m.
There, the report said, he encountered members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in their hundreds.
A memo submitted by the Nigerian Army said the individuals were armed with “dangerous weapons.”
In a testimony to the commission, an officer in Mr. Buratai’s
security detail, said after all entreaties to the protesters to leave
the road failed, they decided to “shoot their way through the blockade”
to prevent their principal from being attacked.
The next day, the report said, Mr. Oyebade deployed troops to the
shrine to arrest the leaders of the Shi’a group, which resulted in the
killings.
The panel said it established that the invasion of the IMN compound
was carried out strictly on Mr. Oyebade’s order and without any rules of
engagement, an action the commission said was at variance with the
provisions of the Armed Forces Act, 1994, and the 1999 Constitution,
both of which vested such authorities strictly in the president of the
federal republic.
“There was no evidence that there was the requisite delegation by the
president to the officer who issued an oral order for the deployment of
the officers and men of the Nigerian Army for the cordon and search
operation,” the report said.
The commission rebuked military officers for refusing to give useful
information that could have helped it reach a more detailed conclusion,
hinting that the number of those killed could have been far higher than
349.
“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.
Similarly, the medical examiner in charge of the bodies kept at
Nigerian Army medical facility in Kaduna also withheld support for the
judicial panel.
“It is unfortunate that the medical officer in charge of the Nigerian
Army Depot Health Centre who took custody of some of the corpses was
not forthcoming in giving evidence that would have enabled the
commission to ascertain the actual number of people killed,” the report
said. “The officer said he didn’t even verify the gender of both the
adult and children corpses that were deposited in his medical center.”
The report said the refusal of the Shi’a group, IMN, to appear and
give testimony during its sittings, did not help the process in
confirming the actual number of casualties.
“Had IMN submitted a memo and appeared before the commission, it
might have been able to shed light on the number of their members who
might have lost their lives in the clashes.”
Kaduna government undignified treatment of corpses
The commission was unable to determine the causes of death of the
deceased victims owing to the mass burial conducted by the state without
any autopsy, the report found.
The panel said 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 commission found members of the IMN culpable in the death of an
army officer, Dan Yakubu, a corporal, and recommended that those found
culpable in the killing of the officer should be prosecuted.
Still, in a damning verdict, the panel said the force deployed by the army against the Shi’ites was “disproportionate.”
“The Nigerian Army should intensify efforts in ensuring compliance
with the rules of engagement and other legal standards in cordon and
search operations at all times.”
The report also recommended that soldiers should never be deployed
against civilians and that the police should be better equipped for
adequate response to public disturbances.
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