“You want to know how I escaped? It was by the will of God that I was able to escape from that place.
“I think NTA was there and they aired the clip. It was very clear. They were violent. Definitely this is very clear. The clips are there. That was what happened.”
These were the exact words of the Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Tukur Buratai, when he gave account of how he escaped death in the hands of suspected members of Shi’ite Islamic sect who attacked his convoy over the weekend in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Buratai spoke to newsmen shortly after appearing alongside other service chiefs before the Senate Committee on Defence in the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
Burutai said that his convoy was attacked despite pleas by a detachment of soldiers for the sect members to remove the blockade they mounted on the highway.
According to him, in an attempt to force their way through despite refusal of the sect members to grant them passage, the soldiers allegedly opened fire on Shiite members leading to the loss of lives. He said that the Shi’ite Islamic sect members were violent in their attack.
The army chief who called on Nigerians to be law abiding, warned however that “nobody should take the law into his hands.”
This is coming on the heels of claims by the Shiite group alleging that the army killed innocent and unarmed members of the movement at sight, all in the process of instigating uninformed members of the public against the group.
The group alleged that the Army killed about hundreds of its members following the clash with Buratai’s convoy. [myad]
