Presidency Keeps Mum As Kaduna SSG Says 5 Hours Spent Burying 347 Shiites Corpses In Mass Grave

April 12, 2016

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The Kaduna State Government on Monday said that 347 corpses were given a mass burial at the Mando cemetery after a clash between soldiers and members of the Shiite’s sect in Kaduna last year.

The Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Mallam Balarabe Lawal, who said this when he appeared before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, said the corpses were given a mass burial in a grave on December 14, 2015 in a cemetery along Mando/ Zaria Road.

According to the SSG, a total of 191 unknown corpses were recovered from the Army Depot in Zaria and another batch of 156 corpses were recovered from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika.

Corroborating the SSG, the Director-General of Interfaith, Alhaji Muhammad Namadi Musa, who claimed he supervised the burial, said the corpses were interred between 12 midnight and 5am.

Hear Musa’s Testimony:

“On December 13, 2015, I received a phone call from the SSG to come to the Government House after which I was directed to go to Zaria to find out the number of corpses and how they would be buried.

“I moved in company of the state Commissioner of Police straight to ABUTH, Zaria to ascertain the number of corpses. There we counted 156 corpses.

“At the Nigerian Depot, the SSG directed me to meet with one Maj. Ogundare regarding the corpses there. After introducing myself, he refused to let me know the number; but later on, the SSG called me and told me the number.

“We left the Nigerian Army Depot with three heavy-duty trucks and 60 young officers who escorted us to assist in offloading the corpses. From ABUTH, Zaria, five small trucks carried the 196 corpses. Most corpses were covered with black materials and they included women and children.”

“One Major Ogundare from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria led the three military trucks loaded with corpses from the army depot while he (Musa) had five Mercedes Benz trucks loaded which with corpses and were taken to a mass grave in Mando area at the outskirts of Kaduna metropolis and buried in a mass grave.

“It was during the mass burial that he had the opportunity to meticulously count the corpses as they were being dropped in the grave.

‘It took five and a half hours – from 12:30a.m on December 14 to about 5:30a.m to bury all the corpses in one mass grave.

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