Reports
reaching the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) have it that some unscrupulous
people, who were behind the massacre of hundreds of unarmed citizens and their
secret burial in a mass grave, are planning to secretly and unilaterally exhume
the corpses in an effort to lower the figure of those buried therein in the
event of a subsequent full blown international investigation of their crime.
Since the
disclosure of the existence of a mass grave at the Judicial Commission of
Inquiry by officials of Kaduna State government, the Nigerian Army has been
quite uncomfortable. Initially, they tried to debunk the existence of a mass
grave in their testimonies at the Commission. When it became obvious through
confessions of officers of the state government that mass grave exists, and
that officers and men of the Nigerian Army were fully involved in the
construction of the mass grave as well as the secret burial of hundreds of IMN
members they killed, the Nigerian Army officials have been working out how they
could at least significantly put down the number of corpses buried in the
grave. At a follow-up testimony at the Judicial Commission, they bluntly
refused to acknowledge the hundreds killed and buried in the mass grave,
claiming that they handed over only "a few" to state officials for
burial.
The Islamic
Movement in Nigeria wishes to make it categorically clear that the site of the
mass grave where the Kaduna state government admitted that it had buried 347 of
those killed by the Nigerian military in Zaria last December is a crime scene,
hence any attempt to tamper with it would not only be taken as a sacrilege and unacceptable,
but also as an attempt to tamper with an important exhibit, which is a serious
crime in itself.
We wish to
also show our dissatisfaction with the reaction of the government at all levels
to the disclosure of the existence of mass grave. The least we expected were
steps to protect and safeguard the place by independent-minded bodies, to
prevent any attempts at mischievous alteration or obliteration of crime facts
by perpetrators. If this confession of mass grave were in other climes, it
would have been accorded all the protection of a crime scene, so that eventually
justice will be done to the victims. Surprisingly however, the site is left
very vulnerable to mischief-makers.
It remains
on record that government officials testifying before the Justice Mohammed
Lawal Garba-led commission had confessed to burying at least 347 corpses in a
mass grave. If the military is claiming that only a “few” corpses were buried
there, there should be no hasty unilateral action on any of the parties
disputing the figures. Such must be done under the watchful eyes of independent
observers and international community.
Signed:
Ibrahim Musa
President
President
Media Forum Of The
Islamic Movement In Nigeria
0805 078 6093
0805 078 6093
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