by Isi Esene
An international news agency, Reuters, has revealed that it is in possession of a video purportedly taken by a Nigerian soldier showing the killing of unarmed men in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Reuters reported on Sunday that the unnamed soldier as saying that he was present when the soldiers shot the captives about two weeks ago.
According to the Reuters report: “In the grainy footage, a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd looks on a few metres away.
“Please don’t fire,” the man says in Pidgin English.
“He tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pickup truck to the left. A Nigerian soldier shouts “come out”, and drags him off it, shoving him on the ground.
“One of them kicks him in the head. Then he and another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and the man lies still next to the others.”
The international news agency claim the existence of another video sourced the same manner where soldiers were shown piling up about 24 bodies in two heaps on the ground from the back of a military truck.
Army spokesman, Col. Mohammed Yerima claimed he is yet to see the video casting doubt on its authenticity.
“How can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics. They will do the killing, say it’s the military and then Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It’s not possible for Nigerian troops to act in this way,” Yerima was quoted as saying.
The Guardian of London on November 2, 2012 reported a similar case of soldiers shooting dead many during raids in Maiduguri, quoting witnesses and hospital staff.
According to the reports, three witnesses said soldiers from the JTF raided several neighbourhoods in Maiduguri late on November 1 and arrested or shot dead dozens of young men.
“More than 30 bodies were brought in by the JTF and most of them were young men,” The Guardian quoted one nurse at a hospital in the town, Yagana Bukar, as saying.
Amnesty International said in a report released on Nov. 1 that the JTF had committed human rights abuses in its fight against Boko Haram.
The report said the JTF had carried out executions in the streets and tortured people without charges ever being brought.
Maiduguri has been a hotbed of Boko Haram terrorists activities with several violent attacks attributed to men affiliated to the Islamic sect.
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