Atiku expresses outrage over alleged secret graveyards of killed soldiers in North-east
…military dismisses report
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday expressed shock and sadness over the alleged secret burial of 1,000 Nigerian soldiers killed by Boko HARAM/ISWAP as reported by the Wall Street Journal, stressing that Nigerians are entitled to know the truth from President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement personally signed by him, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections said he read “with a sense of heartbreak and shock” the report by the Wall Street Journal that over 1,000 Nigerian soldiers have been secretly buried at night by the
Buhari-led administration “in order to hide the true state of the war on terror”. Atiku said he felt heartbreak for the families and friends of those soldiers who, if the report is true, have lost their loved ones without being allowed to bury them or even to have any sense of closure as regards their fate. He said further it was unfortunate that such a thing could happen under a democracy, even as he accused President Buhari’s government of cover-up. “I shudder to think that the cover-up of such an event of epic proportions can be true. The men and women of our armed forces are our first, second and last defence against our domestic and foreign enemies and should be treated with love, respect, dignity and appreciation for the invaluable service they render to Nigeria,” Atiku said. “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,” he said. But the Defence Headquarters dismissed the Wall Street Journal report that the military maintained secret graveyards in Maimalari town, Borno State, north-east of the country, where soldiers killed by Boko HARAM/ISWAP were buried. Onyema Nwachukwu, acting director of Defence Information (DDI), in a statement on Thursday said the military has a solemn tradition for the interment of its fallen heroes and would not indulge in such acts, which he described as “sacrilegious”. “The Defence Headquarters has noted with dismay an online article by Wall Street Journal purporting that the Nigerian Military maintains secret graveyards in the North East theatre of operation,” Nwachukwu said in the statement.