Army/IMN Clash: Foundation Gives Kudos to President Buhari's Assurance

The Global Excellence Foundation has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for giving the assurance that he would give the appropriate response to the report of the Kaduna State Judicial Commission of Inquiry that investigated the Army/Shiites clashes of December 2016.

The foundation said in a statement by its Country Director, Professor Yemi Ola, in Abuja on Wednesday that the prospects are clearer now that Nigerians will get closure to the clashes that became the subject of a long drawn controversy when a military operation was launched after an attempt on the life of the Chief of Army Staff.

The statement was a reaction to an earlier statement by Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu who had revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari is studying the details of the report before announcing appropriate response in due course.

It urged that President Buhari’s dispassionate response to the report must be such that it prevents the rise of another terror group like the IMN so that the military or any security agency for that matter have no need to quell the kind of insurgency that the Shiite sect was cooking up.

The foundation noted that “We must also not lose sight of the genesis of it all. IMN is a group that went off hinge and was on the verge of unleashing extremism on the populace with the youths it has brainwashed, indoctrinated, radicalised and militarised to confront state institutions. Here was a group whose reign of terror spanned a few decades in Zaria, Kaduna state where it used to test run its version of a Shiite Islamic State. Only those that went through the harrowing hardship that the group is capable of inflicting can truly appreciate the commission’s conclusion and recommendations on this group.

“These are the issues that the President must take into cognisance as he studies the report. As a soldier’s soldier, nothing must be done to cripple the military on the altar of political correctness because this is precisely what some people are waiting to see happen. Not emasculating the military must however be balanced with a demand that future operations and engagements stick to rules in terms of respect for human lives,” the statement advised.

It warned that the Presidency must be cautious and avoid the report being hijacked from its own end as several attempts had been made to manipulate facts since December last year.

The group noted that “Since the clashes between soldiers and IMN members (Shiite Sect in Nigeria), led by Sheikh Ibraheem Al-Zakzaky, tempers have been frayed as several persons, organisations and even a foreign country sought to make political capital out of it. The Army as an institution was demonised beyond belief and some even openly canvassed for measure that would have amounted to waiving our sovereignty as a nation. This is something that must not be allowed to happen under Mr President’s watch.

“The report took the wind out of the sail of those who had expected they would ride on it to unleash mayhem. The numerous abuses and excesses of the IMN were adequately addressed by the commission of inquiry even though it made unnecessary concessions to the outlawed group that must be reviewed thoroughly to pave way for the immediate prosecution of IMN members to serve as deterrence to other persons across the country who may be planning to exploit sectarian or religious differences to cause strife.

“Any attempt to reject the panel’s finding is borne out of the fact that it did its job without becoming tools in the hands of parties to the crises,” the statement argued.