Sect says Kaduna govt admits secretly burying 347 of its members

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April 12, 2016 11:16 AM

The Shiites Islamic Movement in Nigeria said Kaduna State government has admitted been part of the secret burial of 347 of its members killed in Zaria in December 2015.

Mass graves

According to the group, the recent revelations of secret mass burial of 347 members killed by Nigerian army at the Kaduna Judicial Commission of Inquiry currently sitting in Kaduna by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) has clearly vindicated them.

The Kaduna SSG, Alhaji Lawal Balarabe Abbas, who represented the Kaduna state government at the JCI on Monday, April 11, 2016, was quoted to have said that 347 members of the Islamic Movement were given mass burial in the aftermath of the Zaria Shiites/Military clash that took place from 12th to 14th December 2015.

In a statement issued on Monday, April 11, 2016 by the spokesman of the group, Ibrahim Musa, Shiites said the SSG comment is a clear confirmation of what they had earlier made public about its members having been buried in mass graves.

"The SSG also established that the secret burial took place based on a court order received by the state government, and that he was earlier in attendance at a meeting with the Governor and some senators, where they deliberated on what to do with the huge numbers of dead bodies of IMN members."

"This was also collaborated by the Director General, religious affairs, . He told the Commission that he went to ABUTH, where he counted 156 corpses, and to army depot, where he counted 191 other corpses, in the presence of one and buried them at midnight at Mando, Kaduna," the sect said.

The group said their figure tally with the earliest figure given by the Human Rights Watch that not less than 300 members of the Movement might have been killed in the pogrom, which it accused the Nigerian Army of using excessive force on unarmed civilians.

"We sincerely hope this will be the beginning of more revelations about the fate of the remaining missing persons, now numbering over six hundred. Today's (Monday) revelations point to the fact that a massacre was carried out by the Nigerian Army on defenseless Nigerians in Zaria from 12-14 December, 2015, which they sought to conceal. The perpetrators must be brought to book," Shiites said in the statement.

"We remain resolute, and will continue to follow peaceful means in our call for the unconditional release of our revered leader his and other brothers and sisters of the Islamic Movement under illegal detention."

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