Army/Shitte clash: Buratai appears before Kaduna panel, says Army acted within the law

he Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai,
yesterday appeared before a panel of inquiry set
up by the Kaduna state government over the
December 12th clash between the Army and
Shitte members that left over 60 people dead
and many others injured.

While testifying at the
panel, Buratai justified the Army's attack on the
shittes, saying they acted within the law.

"The circumstances leading to the
incident of December 12 have been
articulated by the officers involved.

I was
in the convoy. It was my convoy, the
convoy of the Chief of Army Staff.
I left Dutse that morning, hoping to arrive
Zaria in time, to attend the passing out
parade of the 73 regular recruits.

But the
convoy was blocked when we entered
Zaria. What transpired has been
documented by the officers with me. They
have also made their statements. They are
here to give full account of what
transpired.

We are here because we
respect human rights. We are here
because we know the sanctity of human
life, which we have sworn to protect. One
of our constitutional roles is to defend the
territorial integrity of Nigeria, which also
includes the totality of the protection of
human rights and indeed, the property of
every Nigerian.

We have laid down our
lives as army officers and soldiers over the
years in the course of performing our
constitutional roles.

There is no way we will
pick our weapons and deliberatively violate
the rights of the people, which we have
been paid to defend and protect.

This is
quite fundamental. We have constitutional
responsibility. Drawn from that
constitutional responsibility, we also have
our rules and regulations.

And drawn from
that we have a duty to perform in
restoring peace and order where such
peace and order are being disturbed. So,
we followed our rules of engagement,
which are derived from the laws. The Army
is a very respectable organisation. We are
alive to our responsibilities.

In doing so, we
will not tolerate a situation where,
individuals, in the name of human rights,
continue to violate the rights of others and
then turn back and accuse highly
responsible organisations, such as the
Army of human rights abuse. I believe
those organisations crying against what
the military has been doing are not being
sincere.

They can be termed agents of
anarchy. They don't want law and order to
prevail in the society."he said
D