The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the 12-14 December, 2015, Zaria clash between the Nigerian Army and the Islamic Movement of Nigeria [IMN] has presented its final report.
The report was received by the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai on Friday.
In the words of Mallam El-Rufai:
“Today I received the Final Report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Zaria clashes.
“The 13-member Commission of Inquiry was inaugurated on 29 January 2016, with a mandate to report six weeks after its first public sitting.
“The Commission is to inquire into the Zaria clashes, provide a detailed account & assign administrative & criminal responsibility where due.
“I wish to thank members of the Commission, the Secretariat and the counsels that worked on the Inquiry.
“We expected to receive the report six weeks after the first public sitting, but the Commission requested an extension.
“The Kaduna State will digest the report & promptly issue a White Paper conveying government decisions on the recommendations of the Inquiry.
“Our State has suffered too much from ethnic & religious violence since the 1980s.
“We hope the Inquiry report helps consign this to the past.
It could be recalled that the military had attacked members of IMN who allegedly blocked the passage for the Chief of Army Staff [COAS], Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai.
In the ensuing crisis, the army brutally massacred hundreds of the members and left several hundreds wounded.
The wounded included their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky who was shot multiple times by soldiers but survived.
His three sons were also killed during the massacre.
Sheikh El-Zakzaky has been incarcerated since the gory incident took place last year and held incommunicado from his family, friends, even lawyers.
Other wounded persons include his wife and relatives.
Amnesty International has raised alarm over the excesses of the army in extra-judicially killing citizens without chances of fair trial.
The last incident involved the massacre of over seventy pro-Biafra agitators who assembled to commemorate the Declaration of the Sovereign State of Biafra on May 30, 2016.
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