Following the large-scale killing of the Shi’ite members, including women and the young, as well as claims of uneven use of force by the Army, the state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Mohammed Garba, of the Appeal Court, Rivers State Division, in January of this year.
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A government panel has recommended that all soldiers involved in the violent clash in December 2015 between the Nigerian army and members of a Shia movement that left 349 people dead be prosecuted.
The executive summary of the report said the federal government, Kaduna State government, the IMN, the Nigerian Army and other security and law enforcement agencies, committed acts that resulted in the clashes.
The report e-mailed to our correspondent in Kaduna also indicted the leader of the Shiites, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, for his refusal to caution his members during the crisis, which it said, was ‘avoidable’.
– Federal government for allowing the army to use excessive force and not complying with the rules of engagement during the clash.
The state Government on Sunday night officially released the report of the Commission of Inquiry on the December 2015 bloody clash between the Nigerian Army and Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
The massacre of Shia followers, mostly belonging to the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, followed a confrontation between them and an armed convoy of the Nigerian Army Chief Tukur Buratai in Zaria town.
The inquiry’s findings will also raise uncomfortable questions for the U.S. and British armies who provide training and assistance to the Nigerian military in their fight against Boko Haram.
It added, “Security agencies should ensure watch-listing of IMN members and other persons of security interests, whenever they are going out or coming into Nigeria with a view to discovering the sources of their funding, foreign contacts and other useful and relevant information”.
The commission said it had received 3,578 memoranda – 132 letters and 3,446 emails – along with 39 exhibits and 87 witnesses testimonies in the course of the inquiry and the writing of the 193-page report.
The majority of the country’s tens of millions of Muslims are Sunni – including the Boko Haram jihadist militants who have killed thousands in bombings and shootings mainly in the northeast since 2009.
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The IMN said the military had destroyed its religious shrine and the home of Sheikh Zakzaky during the raid.
