The apex sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has said, while the forum commends the visit of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to the scene and victims of the Sunday, December 3, 2023, bomb incident at the Tudun Biri community in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, it rejects the response of the defence headquarters on the subject matter.
Similarly, the forum said it was “constrained to further recommend that the General Officer Commanding of One Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, along with his immediate subordinate officers should be redeployed to allow for unfettered investigations.”
ACF, in the statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, said it warmly welcomed the visit of the minister of State (Defense) along with the COAS and other top government officials to the Tudun Biri Community on December 6, 2023, where the delegation also attended the funeral rites of some of the 126 victims of the incident.
It further posited that the visit was very appropriate and gave the Federal Government, as well as the Nigerian Army, a needed human face.
It also averred that, although ACF is not aware of specific words of apology from the Minister of State over the incident, the visit was in itself an apology enough to the Tudun Biri community.
The statement said, “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 5th December 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.
“In the forum’s view, it was especially painful, as it must be, against the human costs of the tragedy. The wounds of the injured were and are still fresh and many of the dead unburied at the time of the statement and for such reasons, authorities should not minimise 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.
“On the contrary, the usual practice is for communities to be informed about impending military operations.; and (iv) 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 as obvious from photos of the before-and-after the incident”.
ACF therefore reiterated on its earlier stance, contained in an earlier release, that 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.
“As a trite principle of justice, One 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.
“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.”
