Mass Grave: Shiite Group Accuses Gov Elrufa’i Tampering with Evidence

Mass Grave: Shiite Group Accuses Gov Elrufa’i Tampering with Evidence

It has come to the notice of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria that the Governor of Kaduna state, Nasiru Elrufa’i, has on Monday, 22/10/18 ordered for the mass burial of a large number of people presumably killed during the recent mayhem at Kasuwan Magani, Kaduna at the Mando site of an earlier mass grave he buried at least 347 members of the Islamic Movement.

We unequivocally condemn this clear attempt at tampering with evidence by the Kaduna state government desperately out trying to obliterate this invaluable crime scene perpetrated by his government, when in the midnight of 16/12/15, the same government buried 347 people it killed in Zaria during the Nigerian Army’s brutal assault on Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and members of the Islamic Movement, resulting in the death of over a thousand civilian citizens.

Secondly, we condemn even the idea by the Kaduna state government to hurriedly bury victims of the recent utterly senseless mayhem in parts of Kaduna in mass grave, at a time it imposed a 24-hour curfew without allowing relatives of victims identify their loved ones for a more befitting burial. This is an open show of complete disregard to human lives by the Kaduna state government.

We strongly believe that this recent hasty mass burial is another attempt by the Elrufai’s government to sweep under the carpet the atrocities committed by some religious and ethnic bigots involved in the avoidable killings at Kasuwan Magani and Kaduna metropolis in the same way it did with the first mass grave.

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria wishes to draw the attention of Kaduna state citizens and other well-meaning Nigerians to the fact that the entire ruse by Governor Elrufai about convicting the criminals that planned and orchestrated the recent crisis in Kaduna is full of deceit, since the evidence admissible in any court has been buried. It bears a striking resemblance to his government’s stubborn refusal to arrest and prosecute the soldiers involved in the Zaria genocide of December 2015, even after a Judicial Commission of Inquiry found them culpable.

We therefore call on the international community, Human Rights Organizations and the general public to closely watch the Mando site of mass graves to prevent tempering with the evidence of crime perpetrated against humanity under any guise.

SIGNED BY

IBRAHIM MUSA
PRESIDENT MEDIA FORUM OF ISLAMIC MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA