•NAF airstrike
A security expert, Kingsley Uzoma, says there is a need for a holistic investigation to exactly identify those that lost their lives during a military airstrike in Sokoto State yesterday.
The Sokoto State Government claimed that a fighter jet mistakenly bombed two communities in Silame Local Government Area of the state, killing about 10 innocent villagers and injuring several others.
“The military jets were on their mission to eliminate criminals armed groups terrorizing the state, and mistakenly bombed innocent people of this community,” the Press Secretary to the Sokoto State Governor, Abubakar Bawa said.
“We consider this as a mistake because the same military had on several occasions successfully raided so many criminal hideouts in the state.”
However, the military denied any mistake in its strike, with the spokesman for Operation Fansan Yamma, Lieutenant Colonel Abubakar Abdullahi, maintaining that “the targets struck in the vicinity of Gidan Sama and Rumtuwa have been positively identified as associated with the Lakurawa group, reinforcing the justification for the military action taken.”
Speaking on Channels Television today, Uzoma noted that only a joint probe will produce an unbiased report of the incident at Sokoto.
“Such investigation has to be joint in the sense that you have to have a detachment of the military, the police, other auxiliary security agencies like the civil defence.
“Then you have representatives from agencies like the Nigerian Bar Association and selected trusted civil society organization including media houses like Channels, among others. If it is conducted in that way, I can assure you we will have unbiased investigation report,” Uzoma said.
Noting that the public have the duty to trust the military and its pronouncement, the security expert, said that the military’s position can only be authenticated if the joint investigation is carried out the way he prescribed.
He, however, said that if it is found out that the military encountered some errors during the air strike, compensation should be made and more caution employed in future operations.
In December 2023, a deadly military airstrike killed at least 85 people and injured several others at Tudun Biri village in the Igabi Local Government Area of the North-Western state. The incident drew condemnation from many, with the army claiming responsibility and apologising.
