By MARYAM SULEIMAN BELLO, Kaduna

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called for the redeployment of the General Officer Commanding 1-Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, along with his immediate subordinate officers to allow for unfettered investigations into the Sunday drone strike that killed over 85 injured over 66 attending Maulud ceremony at Tudun Biri Kaduna State.

A statement by the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Prof Muhammad-Baba, also described it as inexcusable and failure of intelligence.

The statement added that as a trite principle of justice, 1-Division of the Nigerian Army must not and should not be allowed to investigate itself.

“An independent panel of investigators is clearly indicated. Further, the results of the investigations must be made public, issues that border on national security considerations excepted.

“ACF hereby reiterates its earlier stance position (refer to our Press Release of 4^thDecember, 2023). While ACF recognizes and unequivocally supports the resolve and sacrifices of the nation’s armed forces to totally exterminate banditry and terrorism in the nation.

“However, the Armed forces should always remember that they must remain accountable for their actions. Therefore, ACF is constrained to further recommend that:

“The Defence Headquarters should retract its needless statement. The Ministry of Defence, and the Armed Forces in particular, should take steps to ensure that such incidents are avoided or contained to the barest minimum humanly possible.

“The Federal Government must take responsibility for full compensation to all victims of Tudun Biri. The gesture should also be extended to victims from all previous such incidents.

“Since the Sunday 3^rdDecember, 2023, incident of the bombing of the Tudun Biri community in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, two significant events have occurred to warrant a reaction by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).

“ACF warmly welcomes the visit of the Minister of State (Defense) along with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and other top Government officials to the Tudun Biri Community, on 6^thDecember, 2023, where the delegation also attended the funeral rites of some of the 126 victims of the incident.

“The visit was very appropriate and gave the Federal Government as well as the Nigerian Army a needed human face. ACF considers the visit a welcome departure from earlier rather insipid response to the incident by officers of One Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna. Although ACF is not aware of specific words of apology from the Minister of State over the incident. Arguably, the visit was in itself an apology enough to the Tudun Biri community?

“The COAS had announced a donation of N10 million to the community which ACF considers as grossly inadequate, firmly believing that it is the Federal Government, not the Nigerian Army, that should take responsibility for full compensation for deaths and injuries to victims arising from the incident.

“Still, ACF urges the Army Chief of Staff, as a sign of good faith, to follow up with additional steps to ameliorate the pains and suffering of the community. The plaintive Tudun Biri Community must not be left alone in its recovery process.

“The statement of the Defence Headquarters of the Armed Forces, released on 5^thDecember 2023 was totally unnecessary. Without necessarily wishing to join issues with Defence Headquarters, but the statement, as credited to the Director of Defence Media Operations, left much to be desired in its choice of words and even outrightly contemptuous. It was especially painful viewed, as it must be, against the human costs of the tragedy.”

Continuing , ACF noted that the wounds of the injured were and are still fresh and many of the dead unburied at the time of the statement.

It called on authorities not to minimize or downplay the monumental tragedy that the incident represents.

“Indeed, ACF considers the Defence Headquarters’ response as prove positive that the disaster was a consequence of an inexcusable and incompetent failure of intelligence.

“ACF draws particular attention to four (4) specific issues in the Defence Headquarters’ reaction in reference above, as follows: (i) that the military could deploy an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) without proper ground assessment was a strategic error because it resulted in deaths and injuries to mostly children who were not even as little as carrying sticks and stones; (ii) the Defence Headquarters claimed a ‘threat’ was ‘eliminated’ but such threat was tragically a gathering of mostly children as obvious from video clips and photographs now trending on social media, of the before-and-after the Tudun Biri Massacre; (iii) the Defence Headquarters asserted that the community ought to have informed the military about its activities, an assertion tantamount to a classic blame-the-victim strategy and typical gaslighting of the victims of the incident.

“The usual practice is for communities to be informed about impending military operations; and while it is entirely plausible that terrorists often disguise as civilians and entrench themselves in civilian population, the Tudun Biri gathering was clearly that of innocent civilian citizens, and is obvious from photos of the before-and-after the incident,” the statement added.