The Kaduna State government has revealed how it buried 347 corpses in a mass grave last year after the deadly clash between members of the Shi’ites sect and The Nigeria Army in Zarıa.This was disclosed by the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Mallam Balarabe Lawal, while testifying before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry On Monday.
According to Lawal, the corpses were given a mass burial in a grave on December 14, 2015 in a cemetery along Mando/ Zaria Road.
Speaking further, Lawal said a total of 191 unknown corpses were recovered from the Nigerian Army Depot in Zaria, and another batch of 156 corpses recovered from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Shika.
Collaborating the SSG’s narrative, the Director-General of Interfaith, Muhammad Namadi Musa, who said he supervised the burial, stated that the corpses were buried between 12 midnight and 5am.
Musa’s narrative: “On December 13, 2015, I received a phone call from the SSG 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.
“I moved in company of the state Commissioner of Police straight to ABUTH, Zaria to ascertain the number of corpses. There we counted 156 corpses.
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“At the Nigerian Army Depot, the SSG directed me to meet with one Maj. 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.
“He also confirmed the number while they were being buried; as he counted them one after the other as they were laid in one grave.
“We left the Nigerian Army Depot with three heavy-duty trucks and 60 young officers who escorted us to assist in offloading the corpses. From ABUTH, Zaria, five small trucks carried the 196 corpses. Most corpses were covered with black materials and they included women and children”, he said.
Elder brother of the leader of the Sh’ites sect, Mohammed Sani Yaqoob, stunned the commission when he said he was happy with what the Army did to the sect members, which he said was being funded by the Iranian government.
According to Yaqoob, who is a step brother to El-Zakzaky, the soldiers would have been regarded as cowards if they had turned their backs when they came across members of the sect who blocked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai.
Speaking in Hausa, Yaqoob said that as a child, El-Zakzaky, the fourth child in the family of 16, was very sharp and intelligent