Boko Haram: Atiku accuses Buhari of burying soldiers in secret

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded an investigating into a recent report that the Nigerian Army secretly buried 1000 soldiers killed by Boko Haram terrorists in the northeast.

According to the report by the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of soldiers have been secretly buried, by infantrymen or local villagers, as a result of an attempt by the Army and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to cover-up the scale of terror in the troubled region.

In a statement signed by Atiku on Thursday, August 1, 2019, he said he read the report "with a sense of heartbreak and shock".

He said, "The men and women of our armed forces are our first, second and last defence against our domestic and foreign enemies and should be treated with love, respect, dignity and appreciation for the invaluable service they render to Nigeria.

"I cannot fathom that in the space of a year, 1000 of these great patriots were killed and buried secretly without their families being told. I hesitate to believe that deceit on such a grand scale is even possible."

Atiku, who lost to Buhari in the 2019 presidential election, called for the inauguration of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, headed by a non-partisan and reputable jurist, to investigate the findings of the report.

"While this is occurring, I also strongly urge that a panel of inquiry comprising distinguished former military officers be set up to investigate and report to Nigerians the true state of the war on terror and what must be done to ensure Nigeria brings a speedy end to the ongoing insurgency," he said.

The former vice president said the cover-up of the deaths should shock everyone and be considered a national emergency.

Atiku also urged that Nigeria should make prudent use of finances to redistribute national resources in such a way that ensures military and security forces are well armed and well remunerated.

Nigeria's 10-year war on terror

The Nigerian Army is known for being very careful about releasing troops' casualty figures sustained in the war on terror that has ravaged the northeast region for 10 years.

Nigerian troops have been fighting Boko Haram's insurgency in the northeast for the past 10 years [AFP] AFP

Since Boko Haram's insurgency escalated in 2009, the terrorist group has killed around 30,000 people and displaced millions in the northeast region, with its operations also extending to border countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Even though the powers of the Abubakar Shekau-led main faction of Boko Haram has been on the wane in the past couple of years, another faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has grown in influence and carried out several brutal attacks.

However, despite ISWAP's attacks on military troops and bases over the past year, the Buhari-led government has insisted that the group has been degraded, and limited to only attacking "soft targets".

This week, Buhari's spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said the "real Boko Haram" that the former military dictator met in 2015 has been defeated.

"The real Boko Haram we know is defeated. What we have now is a mixture of remnants of the Boko Haram, fugitive criminals and the Islam in Maghreb together with West African terrorists bonding together," he said.

He said the Buhari government is working hard to ensure security of lives in the country by defeating the terrorists.