Following the clash between the Nigerian Army and the Shiite movement during a procession on Saturday and the subsequent alleged arrest of the spiritual leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, the army on Monday insisted that it applied minimum force to bring the situation under control despite the loss of lives.

Members of the group were alleged to have attempted to assassinate the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, in Zaria.
The Chief of Army Civil Relations, Brig. Gen. Rogers Nicholas, made this known while appearing on Kaakaki programme on African Independent Television (AIT), where he maintained that the army was not under pressure whatsoever in what transpired that day, stressing that the army did what was necessary to bring the situation under control.

According to him, “We tried to negotiate with them that look, you don’t have to do this; this is against the law of this country; you don’t have to do things like that. We warned them that what you are doing is against the law of this country,  and all of a sudden they started insulting the convoy and the next thing we heard was an explosion from their side. Of course, the Nigerian Army will respond appropriately within the rules of engagement for such situations and we did that, and with that we were able to clear the road.”

In order to give credence to his account about what transpired, he stated that NTA and AIT crew were also on the convoy that they were able to record the happenings of what transpired live, stressing that he hoped  both NTA and AIT would tell the people  exactly what happened.

Credit: ThisDay