Featured
Human Rights Abuses: Baga Massacre Has Vindicated the Military, Says DHQ
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said recent reports from the foreign media and Amnesty International, which have relied on information from prominent Borno politicians about the recent massacre of over 2,000 civilians in Baga town, have absolved the Nigerian military of human rights abuses and barbaric killings previously attributed to it by the same groups.
The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said on Sunday, said the human rights bodies, northern and foreign groups have finally been confronted with the atrocities of the Boko Haram terrorists.
According to Olukolade, “This interpretation of the recent terrorist attacks on Baga is quite valid.”
He recalled that the DHQ had always maintained that the military was never engaged in any massacre in Baga, as some activists and the media had alleged in 2013.
He said: “We have been insisting that such barbarism was more typical of the terrorists’ pattern of operation than the action of our troops.
“It is unfortunate that some interest groups for whom it was more convenient continued to insist on labelling the Nigerian military.
“Let’s hope that this will encourage them to begin placing blame where it actually belongs. The priority of all our military actions in this campaign has been the protection of the civilian population.”
In 2013, the military, on the one hand, and human rights groups and some Borno State politicians, on the other hand, had traded blame over who was responsible for the death of hundreds in Baga following a clash between Boko Haram terrorists and the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) in the Borno town.
Leading this group of politicians were the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Borno elders, some foreign media organisations and Senators Ahmad Zanna and Maina Ma’aji Lawan who have been the avowed critics of military presence and operations in Borno State.
The groups had even threatened to drag the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for human rights violations.
