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Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has denied claims that the military has a secret graves for soldiers killed by terrorists in the North East.
The Wall Street Journal had had reported how soldiers killed by Boko Haram insurgents were allegedly being buried in hidden graveyards, away from the eyes and pity of family and friends.
Senior government and military officials were quoted as saying a secret graveyard in Maiduguri, Borno State and an official military cemetery in the state, hold the bodies of at least 1,000 soldiers killed while fighting the insurgents.
Quoting military sources, the newspaper said on the eve of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Borno in November, army commanders secretly moved corpses of soldiers from a morgue to unmarked graves.
“When President Buhari visited the Maiduguri base in November, commanders rushed to bury bodies that had collected at the morgue from the recent attack on the base in Metele and several others, according to several soldiers at the base. They moved the bodies from the morgue into the unmarked graves under cover of darkness.”
A soldier was quoted as saying: “We could see the headlamps and the torches of the engineering division digging the graves.”
The report said as the commanders prepared the base for the president’s arrival, they also drafted in additional medical staff to treat the dozens of wounded soldiers in the base’s hospital wards.
But Director, Defence Information, Colonel Onyema Nwachuku, in a statement, said the rumour of secret graves could only emanate from an uninformed authors and those who did not wish the military well.
He said the Nigerian Armed Forces has a rich and solemn tradition for the interment of her fallen heroes and does not indulge in secret burials, saying it is sacrilegious and a profanity to extant ethos and traditions of the Nigerian military.
“In tandem with the traditions of the Armed Forces, Fallen heroes are duly honoured and paid the last respect in befitting military funeral of international standard, featuring funeral parade, grave site oration, solemn prayers for the repose of departed souls by Islamic and Christian clerics, as well as gun salutes, aside other military funeral rites.
“The cemetery described in the publication, which is situated in Maimalari military Cantonment is an officially designated military cemetery for the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the North East theatre, with a Cenotaph erected in honour of our fallen heroes.
“The official cemetery has played host to several national and international dignitaries, where wreaths were laid in honour of the fallen heroes. It is therefore a far cry from the sacrilegious impression being painted by “Wall Street Journal.
“The Defence Headquarters, therefore, urges members of the Armed Forces and the general public to disregard such a misinformed publication and see it as a figment of the imagination of the writer, whose knowledge of military valued ethos and traditions is grossly misplaced,” Nwachuku said.
Notwithstanding the rebuttal, former vice president, and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has called for an independent inquiry into the report.
In a statement, yesterday, he said it is shocking that such a thing could happen under a democratic government.
He described the situation as a national emergency that should shock all statesmen and leaders of thoughts into action to save Nigeria.
“I cannot fathom that in the space of a year, 1,000 of these great patriots were killed and buried secretly without their families being told. I hesitate to believe that deceit on such a grand scale is even possible.
“To ensure that we get to the bottom of this matter, I urge that a judicial commission of inquiry headed by a non-partisan and reputable jurist, be inaugurated to investigate the findings of the Wall Street Journal. While this is occurring, I also strongly urge that a panel of inquiry comprising distinguished former military officers be set up to investigate and report to Nigerians the true state of the war on terror and what must be done to ensure Nigeria brings a speedy end to the ongoing insurgency.”
