I have just read the fraudulent apologia of Dr. Jibril Ibrahim on the report of the commission of inquiry set up by the Kaduna state government which has just submitted its report. By the way, Dr. Ibrahim is a member of the Kaduna commission and for a long time, a notable rights activist. Since he did not submit a minority report, it is morally wrong to be writing on the so-called army/civilian clash. After the publication of his report on the findings of the commission, Premiumtimes has published part of the report on the killings and the exoneration of the chief of army staff, General Tukur Buratai.
Does Dr. Ibrahim want to be taken seriously when he claimed that the Shiites stayed away from the proceedings of the commission? Apart from the detention of their leader and his wife, the Kaduna state government charged over 250 members of the group to court and got them locked up in prison custody. Did the commission ask the federal government to release the victims of the brutal military attack to tell their own stories? The commission says that 249 people were killed including a soldier. Is the commission not aware that while 250 people have been charged to court for killing a soldier no one has been charged for killing 248 citizens?
Why has the Commission put all the blame on Major-General Oyebade, the GOC in Kaduna? Before the involvement of the GOC in the violent attack the Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai had authorized his convoy to kill the Shiites under the pretext that there was a plan to assassinate him. So, General Oyebade took the decision to attack the Shiites without the consent or authority of the chief of army staff?
Dr. Ibrahim and other members of the commission should not play on the intelligence of the Nigerian people by exonerating the Chief of Army Staff who gave orders for the killing of 348 Nigerians whose bodies were secretly buried by the army with the collaboration of Kaduna Governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai.
In his patriotic intervention, Professor Pius Adesanmi has started a debate on the report of the commission. His analysis of the pogrom cannot be challenged. Let other Nigerians speak out against the brutal killings and secret burial of 348 citizens of Nigeria. As Professor Adesanmi has suggested the governors of Benue, Enugu, and other states should set up commissions of inquiry to probe the killings of unarmed farmers by Fulani herdsmen.
-Tope Michael.
