Former Labour Party vice presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed has raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the December 2015 Zaria incident, suggesting the events leading to the confrontation between Nigerian military forces and Shia Muslims were deliberately orchestrated.
Speaking during an interview with Channels TV from 16:15, Baba-Ahmed questioned the strategic reasoning behind then-Chief of Army Staff General Tukur Buratai’s presence in Zaria and his chosen route through areas where religious activities were taking place. “In December 2015, a war was supposed to have been won in the northeast. What business—what military and strategic business—why did an army chief have to come to Zaria for a convocation? Not for an NDA graduation of recruits, and he chose to follow the route where the Shiites were holding religious activities,” Baba-Ahmed questioned.
The former vice presidential candidate alleged deliberate planning behind the incident that resulted in significant casualties. “All these things were orchestrated. They knew the exact hour, the exact minute that he was coming to pass because they had the technology, and 800 people were killed because they wanted to raze down the temple that was built. These things were carefully planned and orchestrated,” he claimed.
The December 12, 2015 incident in Zaria involved a confrontation between the Nigerian Army and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), a Shia Muslim group. The military at the time stated that Shia sect members had erected a makeshift roadblock near a mosque, which they characterized as an assassination attempt on General Buratai’s convoy.
However, human rights organizations and the Shia community disputed the military’s account, alleging excessive use of force that resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries among civilians.
