A pro-Democracy and Non- Governmental Organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS
\nASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has dismissed the report of the
\ninvestigation purportedly conducted by the Defence Headquarters into the
\nbombing of an Internally Displaced person’s camp in Rann Borno state as
\nsoft tissues of public relations gambit for the military institutions in
\nthe Country.<\/p>\n
Besides, the Rights group said the investigation does not meet the
\nthreshold of global best practices since it wasn’t independent and
\ntransparent and indeed it was simply an internal manipulative mechanisms
\nactivated by the hierarchy of the nation’s military just to whitewash a
\nvery serious and damaging institutional error committed by the Nigerian
\nmilitary in the conduct of the ongoing counter terror war in the North
\nEast of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
In a statement by the NationalCoordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and
\nthe National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the
\noutcome of that official probe amounted to the height of insensitivity and
\nirresponsibility especially the dimension it took whereby the blame for
\nsuch a callous logistical error was shifted from the military of Nigeria
\nand the Nigerian State to the poor and desperate internally displaced
\npersons who were unfortunately bombed out of existence in their hundreds
\nby the same military institutions that ought to defend them from the
\nferocious attacks of armed boko Haram terrorists.<\/p>\n
HURIWA said that since the Defence Headquarters rightly branded the
\nincident as the erroneous airstrike of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
\nnear the Camp at Rann in Kala-Balge Local Government Area, Borno State, on
\n17\u00a0 \u00a0 January 2017, by the Nigerian Air Force,\u00a0 why then was no single
\nperson held to account for such an egregious miscalculation and error of
\njudgment?<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that the Defence Headquarters constituted Boards of
\nInquiry to investigate the incidents and come up with their reports.
\nHowever, defence headquarters affirmed that some of the Services and
\ncommands who were directly affected also constituted their Boards of
\nInquiry in line with service regulations. In all, Defence Headquarters
\nwas equally provided with the reports of all the other Boards
\nconstituted, to investigate the various incidents.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled also that all the reports were evaluated by a final Board
\nat the Defence Headquarters, to have a clear picture of the incidents and
\nthereafter, comprehensive reports of each of the incidents were produced.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that the Defence Headquarters claimed that the main reason
\nthat caused the unfortunate airstrike near the IDP camp at Rann, was lack
\nof appropriate marking of the area, near the Camp where the IDPs were
\nstruck.<\/p>\n
Defence Headquarters claimed that hitherto, people were not expected to
\namass at that location. Furthermore, the location was not reflected in the
\noperational map as a humanitarian base.<\/p>\n
The Defence Headquarters further claimed that “the normal pattern for Boko
\nHaram Terrorists to form up, before attacking innocent civilians and
\ntroops is to amass. Hence, it appeared as a place that could equally be
\nused for enemy activities. Thus, when mass movement was noticed through
\naerial satellite observation, it was taken for Boko Haram Terrorists
\nactivity, which needed to be neutralized with speed”.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the findings of the investigative panels on the bombing of the
\nIDPs, HURIWA said the findings were not far-reaching and was simply a
\nchoreographed face saving measure erected by the military officials to
\nhide behind technicalities to exonerate their officers of guilt of
\ncriminal negligence which may have occasioned the incident that caused the
\nuntimely demise of over\u00a0 a hundred innocent civilians.<\/p>\n
HURIWA accused the military of failing to list out the specific names of
\nindividuals whether civilians or military who ought to have provided
\noperational intelligence but neglected their obligations thereby leading
\nto the accidental bombing of the civilians even as the Rights group said
\nthere was clear evidence that the unfortunate cruel fate suffered by the
\ninnocent civilians did not elicit adequate remorse from the military
\ninstitutions hence the identities of the victims were deliberately not
\ndisclosed and the Spokesman of the Defence never offered profound
\napologies for this egregious error.<\/p>\n
Besides, the Rights group said there were reports that some of those
\ninternally displaced persons waved their clothes to demonstrate that they
\nneeded emergency services and assistance but that what they later saw were
\nseries of bombs that were unleashed on them.<\/p>\n
HURIWA therefore has asked the Federal Government to set up a high powered
\njudicial commission of inquiry into the accidental bombing during which
\ntime the survivors would be invited in camera to render all the evidence
\nthat they may have before and after the incident.<\/p>\n
“HURIWA is calling on the Federal Government and the Acting President to
\nensure that some persons are brought to account for the crime of bombing
\ninternally displaced persons to death. What happened was human error which
\nmay have occurred due to criminal negligence or crass incompetence and
\nlack of professionalism. Legally, Ethically and Morally whenever such an
\nincident happens the families of the unfortunate victims ought to be
\nadequately compensated and if someone or a group of persons were found
\nnegligent of their lawful duties then they must be sanctioned in
\naccordance with the laws of Nigeria.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A pro-Democracy and Non- Governmental Organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has dismissed the report of the investigation purportedly conducted by the Defence Headquarters into the bombing of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n