There was disagreement between the Nigerian Army and the Kaduna State Government on Monday over the number of corpses released to the State officials by the army for mass burial during the December 12 – 14, 2015 Shi’ite /Army clash in Zaria.
The government had previously said in the sitting of the commission that, at least, 347 corpses were received by its officials from the Army for mass burial, but the Army claimed it released just “few” corpses to the officials.
While testifying before the Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba-led commission on Monday, the Army refused to give the figures it handed over to the government.
The Director General of Interfaith, Muhammad Musa, had claimed that he led the burial of the unknown corpses and that it was carried out between 12am and 5am.
Musa had said, “On 13th December, I received a phone call from the Secretary to the State Governor to come to the Government House, after which I was directed to go to Zaria to find out the number of corpses and how they would be buried.
“At the Nigerian Army Depot, the SSG directed me to meet with one Major Ogundare regarding the corpses there. After introducing myself, he refused to let me know the number; but later on, the SSG called me and told me the number.”
The Nigerian Army, however, insisted on Monday that few corpses, and not the 347 corpses, were given to the government for burial.
At the resumed hearing of the commission, a medical officer from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria, Major Uche Agulana, explained to the commission that against the state government’s claim that 347 corpses were buried in a mass grave, he handed few corpses to the state’s officials.
Agulana, when asked by the counsel to the commission to give the actual figure of the dead, maintained he did not keep the record of the deaths as, according to him, he was busy at that time “trying to save lives that were brought into the hospital.”
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