Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters Sets Up Board To Investigate Alleged Killing Of Civilians In Zamfara State

The Nigerian Defence Headquarters says it has commenced investigations into the alleged killing of innocent civilians during an air strike targeted at terrorists who converged on Mutumji in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State last Sunday.

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Musa Danmadami, who disclosed this, while clarifying issues at a media briefing on military operations conducted in the past three weeks maintained that the air strike was targeted solely at bandits who invaded the area in their hundreds on motorcycles.
He said with the allegations, the military high command has now set up a board to investigate the alleged killings and collateral damage during the combined operation between the ground forces and the Air component. 
Major General Danmadam who lamented the death of some soldiers from the ground forces during the operations flayed the media reports which he said over-exaggerated the number of soldiers killed in the operations.
According to him, the number of civilians alleged to have been killed during the operation has not been officially communicated to the military by the Zamfara State government but added that the operation was conducted successfully and a lot of terrorists were killed in the air strike.
He noted the air bombardment was a precision bombardment and a lot of terrorists were neutralized during the operations and that investigation has been ordered into the operation to ascertain if actually there was collateral damage and the number of people that were involved. 
General Danmadami said “for now we cannot give you any specific number as to the level of collateral damage that happened during that incident so as not to jeopardize the investigation that is ongoing.”