The year 2020 has been a difficult year for Nigerians who have completely lost faith in the Buhari administration's capacity to address the many challenges facing the country. But like the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, has warned, things would only get worse.
Last Saturday’s horror attack by Boko Haram, on innocent farmers who were working on rice fields, truly reflects the Sultan's warning that under the current government, good times are only but a dream.
As usual, all you get from government is condemnation. No resignations whatsoever, and like the Special Adviser on Media to the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, Salihu Yakassai, puts it, live goes on, and the issue is forgotten like the ones before it.
If this doesn't move u to tears i dont know what will. 43 souls woke up & went to earn a living, only to be slaughtered like rams. 24hrs later nobody has been sacked, no major action taken, & in another 24hrs the outcry will end & we will move on. Allah Ya Isa #ZabarmariMassacre pic.twitter.com/4g7nzhKv7z
— Peacock (@dawisu) November 29, 2020
While Nigerians await news of mass resignations with Buhari himself topping the list, the Nigerian military would rather issue a statement debunking claims on number of casualties.
The Defence Headquarters, on Monday, faulted a report by the United Nations that 110 civilians were killed in the aftermath of Saturday’s onslaught, saying 43 rather, as initially reported, were killed.
Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, said as of Monday morning, 43 corpses were recovered from the incident scene in the Zabarmari area of the northeast state.
On Sunday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, disclosed that at least 110 persons died in the horrific attack.
However, reacting l on Monday morning, while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme Enenche said the troops counted the corpses together with the locals and 43 deaths were recorded.
He said, “I knew it (the issue) is going to come up particularly because it is coming from the United Nations and not a source that does not want to be identified. This is a source that has identified itself that a 110 specifically (were murdered).”
Enenche, however, explained that he contacted the field commandants and “they gave me a synopsis of what happened. When the governor was to go (to the scene) and after they had recovered the dead, the troops had to move in there and they counted 43.
“Of course, some people ran into the bush and they started coming back and trickling in.
“As at 2pm yesterday (Sunday), I called them and they got back to me at about 7pm yesterday, still counting, looking if they will recover (more corpses). We call it Exploitation after Action Review.”
The DHQ Coordinator said the search for more remains of victims is still on but insisted that 43 corpses were retrieved from the scene as of today.
“Probably we may count up to the figure he (Kallon) gave in the future but as it is now, what we have counted with the locals is still 43 and we are hoping that we don’t get beyond that.
“This is the real situation. I did not sleep, we had to follow it because this is very relevant coming from the United Nations.”