The International Human Rights Commission, IHRC, has condemned the recent Military airstrikes that accidentally killed over 80 people during a Maulud event in Tudun Biri community of Kaduna State.
The Country Director of the IHRC in Nigeria, Amb. Abdullahi Adamu-Bakoji, in a statement on Friday, lamented that from 2014 to 2023, over 300 innocent people were killed ”accidentally” by the Nigerian Military.
According to him, these killings are too numerous to be considered as accidental.
He said: “The fact that these incidences occur almost every year without the government taking drastic actions to forestall future occurrence gives the impression that the government has no respect for the sanctity of human life.
There is the tendency for citizens and indeed the international community to term these killings as a form of official terrorism.”
Mr Adamu-Bakoji said the Nigerian government should know that its human rights protection record is worsening by the day “on account of its inaction and insensitivity to the feelings of the citizens”.
The IHRC country director warned that the World is watching the situation to know if the trend is left to continue unabated.
“IHRC said it is terribly shocked by the recent bombing by the Nigeria Army of over 80 innocent people including women and children at Tudun Biri Igabi LGA Kaduna State, Nigeria while they were attending a Maulud activity.
“It cannot fathom how an Army which is supposed to have the capacity for surveillance, intelligence gathering and leveraging modern communication gadgets bomb innocent people with precision in the name of decimating terrorists.
“IHRC condemns this callous act in the strongest terms and calls on the government to institute a proper investigation into the matter with a view to punish the culprits in accordance with international conventions and the Nigerian military code of ethics and rules of engagement.
“Failure to do so will leave the IHRC with no other option than to embark on an international campaign to black list the Nigerian Authorities as Grand Human Rights Abusers.
“IHRC will keep watch on the situation to see whether justice will be done or not, including paying compensation to the families of those killed innocently, because it has the mandate of the United Nations to do so,” the statement noted.
