'I spent 5 hours burying 347 Shi’ites victims'

Namadi Musa, Kaduna state director-general of Interfaith agency, on Monday said he spent five hours conducting mass burial for victims of the December clash involving soldiers and some members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shi’ites.

Speaking when he appeared before the judicial commission which the Kaduna state government set up to probe the clash, Musa said the burial took place between 12:30am and 5:30am on  December 14.

He said he counted the bodies as they were being put in the mass grave, saying they comprise 191 from the army depot in Zaria and another 156 from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hostpital (ABUTH) in Shika, Zaria.

Musa disclosed that the bodies were interred in the Mando area of Kaduna metropolis.

According to him, one Ogundare, an army major, led three military trucks loaded with corpses, while he (Musa), had five Mercedes Benz trucks loaded with corpses from ABUTH.

He added that 50 soldiers who accompanied Ogundare off loaded the corpses into the grave.

Adamu Ahmed, head of surgery of ABUTH, alleged that on December 13, the army, along with some policemen invaded the premises of the hospital and took over the mortuary.

He said they chased out workers from the mortuary and prevented access to the place until the next day when they left.

Though the army claimed that only seven person were killed in the incident, which happened after an alleged attempt on the life of Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, the sect has published the list of 705 of its members who they claimed were killed by soldiers.