The General Officer Commanding, GOC, 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Adeniyi Oyebade has declared that only God knows what would have happened in Zaria on the 12th December, 2015 if not for the efforts of men of the Nigerian Army in aborting the organized plan of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, otherwise known as Shi’ites.
Testifying before the Commission of Inquiry set up by the Kaduna State government to investigate the clash between IMN members and the troops of the Army in Kaduna on Monday, the GOC said, “Only God knows what would have happened in Zaria but with what we saw, there would have been wide spread of violence because they were chanting war songs freely and publicly in the streets of the town.
“We saw IMN members in their hundreds carrying all kinds of dangerous weapons, some of which we retrieved and recovered from them and are with the police.
“The search operation was mainly to retrieve the dangerous weapons from them but the Army meant a violent resistant from them. In the cause of doing the search operation, the Army came under serious attack by the members of IMN and in line with the rules of engagements, we took self defence measures and as a result, the resistance was such that we had to do everything to ensure that it does not spread to other parts of the town.
“There was casualties on both sides as a result of the resistance of the members of the IMN.”
He explained that prior to attack on the Army by the members of IMN, “I went out in Zaria town and I saw for myself members of IMN carrying dangerous weapons in their hundreds and l knew that it was imperative and based on the reports I received, there was the need for the Army to go in the search operation with the sole aim to retrieve the weapons from the Shi’ite members.”
Asked to ascertain the number of those killed in the clash, the GOC noted that he could not give the exact figure of those killed based on the order he gave for a search operation to be carried out by the Army.
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