The former Head of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has alleged that the military is under-reporting the number of casualties being recorded in the ongoing war against insurgents.
Odinkalu, said this at the media briefing by the Coordinating Committee on the National Day of Mourning in Abuja.
May 2018 was set aside by the Committtee as a National Day of Mourning and Remembrance for victims of violence in the country.
The human rights activist wondered why commanders would play down on the number their subordinates that died on the battlefield.
He said: “I don’t understand why people under your command will die and you will lie against their death bodies, even as he added that the “dehumanization suffered by
According to the African Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), an estimated 60,000 persons were killed in Nigeria’s Middle Belt between 2001 and 2016. Also, in the first 70 days of 2018, over 1,400 persons were killed violently across the country, an average of nearly 40 persons and the Federal Capital Territory.
Extra judicial killings of Nigerians in their thousands in the hands of uniformed services, Boko Haram continues to terrorise, killing thousands of Nigerians; even as rustlers, bandits and vigilantes, whose preferred currency is blood have taken over part of the North West of the country, including Southern Kaduna, Birnin Gwari in Kaduna and much of Zamfara State.
The former Head of the Nigeria’s Human Rights Commission, who read a press statement signed by Abiodun Baiyewu, Yemi Adamolekun, Ier Ishaver, Auwal Musa for JN-CAC, noted that despite the suppression of information on these killings, it is quite clear that death toll from these killings has risen dramatically in recent times.
While pointing out that the government is beginning to rationalize the killings as normal, Odinkalu said the group will storm the Unity Fountain in Abuja to protest the violent killings in th country.
In his remarks at the forum, Jaye Gaskia, explained that the planned protest at the “contested terrain” will be between lovers of freedom and those who are opposed to it. According to Jaye, the protest will be a peaceful one as they have no intention of indulging in any form of violence.
“Nobody goes violent while mourning, there have also been losses on the part of the military,” he quipped.
The Nigeria Country Representative, Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu, noted that with the rate of violence in Nigeria currently, no community is safe anymore.
She said: “Nigeria is like a ship right now and we don’t know when we would sink”, even as she added that every Nigerian “was endangered at the moment the citizenry.”
