Army to probe extra-judicial killing of IPOB, MASSOB members

series of allegations of extra-judicial killings
of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, 
during some of their peaceful protest sessions by some
 of its personnel, the Nigerian Army, yesterday, set up an 
eight-man panel to investigate the allegations.

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, while
inaugurating the panel at the Army Headquarters, Abuja,
 said the allegations were not good for civil-military relations and were capable of demoralising the Nigerian personnel in the performance of their constitutional responsibilities.

The allegations, according to Buratai, include the Amnesty
International reports and allegations by Indigenous People 
of Biafra, IPOB, of rights violations of arrested members. It also include allegations of Boko Haram terrorists against some Army personnel and commanders based on which some of them are already suffering discriminations in some quarters.

The reports range from extra-judicial executions, arbitrary
arrests, detentions, torture and disappearance of IPOB
members and suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

“These allegations are not good for civil-military relations
 and are capable of demoralising the Nigerian Army personnel in the performance of their constitutional roles, “he said.

Buratai said it was expedient to thoroughly and impartially
investigate the allegations to find out the facts of the matter
and to enable relevant authorities take appropriate actions.

But Buratai asked the panel not to revisit allegations already
investigated by state governments or the National Human
Rights Commission, NHRC, through similar panels.

The Army’s special board of inquiry, which has Major
 General Ahmed Tijani Jibrin (retd) as president, according
 to the Army boss, was set up to investigate the matter and establish the true situation of the whole allegations.

Other members of the panel include Brigadier-General
 Dadan Garba (retd); Brigadier-General Abdulqadir Guide (retd);

Brigadier-General O. Olayinka; Col. L. B. Mohammed; Col. U.M.
Wambai; Mr Olawole Fapohunda and Lt.-Col. C. M. Akaliro,
who is the panel’s secretary.

You can’t divide Nigeria in my time, Buratai tells agitators
Meantime, Buratai had earlier told those agitating for an
independent state to “forget it.”

Speaking in Abuja, Monday, after receiving an award 
conferred on him by a coalition of over 80 civil society organisations, Buratai said the army would not condone 
any act that could lead to the disintegration of the country.
He also promised that insurgency would soon be a thing of
the past.

He said: “Those individuals and groups that are bent on
destablising our country, I think they have to wait till, may
 be, the next three or four millennia for them to do that.
 That is, maybe the next generation of officers and men will allow them at all.

“Having been given the millennium hero award, I want to
 call on all the agitators for separation and other acts of
destabilisation that they better forget it. Not in this era, not 
in this millennium.

“I want to say that we would continue to do our best to
maintain the security that is needed as provided in the
constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We have
 been tasked to defend our country.”