KADUNA, Nigeria — Akilu Abdullahi habitually engaged his mother in heartwarming conversations every morning before going to work. But he was unable to do so on 2 January. The young man who dreamed of becoming an imam was seized, a day before, on his way to the market by some soldiers. He never returned home.

The next time his family saw him, it was in harrowing cellphone pictures days after his disappearance. Mr Abdullahi was lying in the bush, stripped to the waist and his hands bound. His lifeless body, riddled with bullet wounds, was later brought to his mother, Maryam Mohammed. Her tears have not stopped since.

Three days before Mr Abdullahi’s disappearance, Nura Yusuf went to the Katul Crossing Market in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna on Saturday 30 December to sell a goat and sack of grain. Shortly after he arrived at the market, he was shot and killed by a man in a Nigerian military uniform.

According to a witness account, Mr Yusuf was shot in the chest as other soldiers raised their guns and shot into the air. After a brief pause, the soldiers shot two more rounds and shouted insults before hurling the corpse of Mr Yusuf and his motorcycle into a military van and driving away. The body was later found dumped around Oduma, a village in Kachia.

The accounts were horrific – of promising young men being killed and villagers watching the execution of their neighbours, fearing they would be the next victims. These are the accounts of some of the atrocities allegedly perpetrated by Nigerian soldiers in Tilde Fulbe, a community in Kachia LGA.

For several days between 21 December and 10 January, soldiers, day and night, stormed Tilde Fulbe, arbitrarily arresting, extorting and extrajudicially killing residents, a month-long investigation by PREMIUM TIMES found, based on on-the-ground reporting, interviews with multiple sources, including families of victims, eyewitnesses, and a review of verified citizen-generated photos.

The community released 11 names of persons said to have been killed: Akilu Abdullahi, Ibrahim Abubakar, Safiyanu Adamu, Abdulaziz Yusuf, Magaji Umar, Abdulkadir Idris, Saidu Saleh, Nura Magaji, Ibrahim Sani, Musa Dan Asabe, and Nura Yusuf.

 

The Nigerian Army denied involvement in any of the killings. Instead, the official narrative provided by military authorities was that troops responded to a kidnap incident in that community on 21 December 2023. The army also said soldiers went in search of “criminals” suspected to be involved in insurgent activities.

 

Kaduna State has been under the siege of terrorists, locally called bandits, in recent years. The terror groups kidnap or kill residents and travellers at will, mainly in rural communities. At least 287 students were kidnapped in Chikun Local Government Area of the state this month. 

While there have been several dastardly attacks in the state, PREMIUM TIMES could not trace any incident of reported terrorist activities in Tilde Fulbe during the period of the military raid.

‘Painful Death’

Mr Abdullahi’s arrest and killing haunt his family to this day. His mother, Maryam, became hypertensive. His memory still evokes pain and tears from her.

She told PREMIUM TIMES that soldiers picked up her son along the road to the public primary school in Tilde Fulbe, about six minutes walk from the family’s home. His whereabouts were unknown for seven days before his corpse was found.

 

Even though she is still heartbroken, Ms Mohammed has accepted Akilu’s cruel fate as the will of God.

“I give thanks to God in all of this, I can’t fight God and whatever He does in our lives, we have to give Him glory,” she said. “They picked up my second and last child on his way to the market for his business. And that’s the end of it.”

In her downtime, Ms Mohammed would reach for his photographs to remember the version of him before the killing. “But it only causes her more pain and trauma,” Mallam Jibo, Akilu’s uncle, said.

In responding to these issues, Saleh Momale, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Kaduna Peace Commission, said security agents work together with local collaborators in the communities to obtain security information and help the troops with intelligence. He admitted that the military could have erred in the way it responded to the incidents in Tilde Fulbe.

“The security agencies, as normal, may err or make mistakes in trying to get to the roots of some of some issues. In this process, they occasionally make arrests, but what is expected is that the rule of law and rule of engagement supersede any other type of action that any state actor should take,” he said.

 

 

However, Musa Yahaya, the acting deputy director of Army Public Relations, 1 Division Kaduna, ruled out mistakes on the side of the military.

He said they received information about terrorist activities in Tilde Fulbe, but when they arrived at the village they found that most of the “criminals have fled with their families for fear of being eliminated by the militia group in the area.”

Living in a Climate of Fear

The soldiers planted fears in the community and triggered forced displacements, with residents fleeing to mosques or the state capital for safety.

“We were distraught throughout that period,” said Hussaini Musa, an octogenarian and former traditional ruler in the community. “We never faced this form of unrest since we moved to this place in 1992.”

Mr Musa and his family moved to Tilde Fulbe after the violent indigene-settler crisis of 1992 in Zangon Kataf that led to the death of scores of people. That conflict escalated into the notorious Zangon Kataf crisis, spreading beyond Kataf to other parts of southern Kaduna State which, eco-climatically, is part of the Middle Belt, a sub-humid transition zone between Nigeria’s semi-arid north and humid south.

“We were always worried because the people that were supposed to protect us were now after our lives and properties,” Mr Musa said, referring to the atrocities that happened in late December. “They killed 11 people in this community within the space of 10 days.”

 

Mr Musa told PREMIUM TIMES that his son, Yusuf, was also arrested by the soldiers at his shop where he sold ginger. He was labelled as a “terrorist” and taken to the Nigerian Navy Armament Technology School at the Ladugga grazing reserve.

After the arrest of his son, Mr Musa went to the Nigerian Navy Barrack in Ladugga, close to his neighbourhood. He went “specifically” to explain that his son is not a criminal. “The young man was only known for his farming and business zeal,” he said.

At the barracks, Mr Musa learnt that his son had been transferred to Kaduna city. The officers he met advised him to follow up on the case in the state capital. “But because of the extrajudicial killing during that period, I thought I was never going to see Yusuf again,” Mr Musa added. “It was divine intervention and after they finished their investigation, nothing incriminating was found against my son.”

In response to these incidents, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) issued a statement saying the frequent intrusion of soldiers into Tilde Fulbe was causing anxiety in the community.

“They now live in perpetual fear and no longer sleep in their houses as they are uncertain about which compound the blood-thirsty soldiers would burgle next and or who they would kill to quench their reckless thirst for innocent blood,” MACBAN said at the time.

What happened on 21 December

Shortly before midnight on Thursday 21 December, Safiyanu Adamu left the venue of the Islamic ‘Maulud Nabiyy’ celebration at Katul Crossing for his house. Riding on a motorcycle, he ran into a hole that caused him an accident. The 22-year-old sustained injuries on his face and feet, according to his parents.

By the time he got home, he was pushing his motorcycle and could barely walk properly. He began to shout for help at the entrance of his house.

Through an exclusive interview with Adamu Idris, Safiyanu’s father, PREMIUM TIMES was able to reconstruct the final hours of Safiyanu.

 

Upon hearing the shaky voice of his injured son, Mr Idris said he jumped off his bed to find out what was going on. A moment later, he returned to his room to dress up and then telephoned a taxi driver to take them to the hospital with Safiyanu’s mother and his neighbours.

 

“The taxi driver did not come in time,” Mr Idris said in February. “So, we used motorcycles but we hadn’t gone far when we met the driver on the road so we transferred the patient to the car.”

Safiyanu’s mother and two of Mr Idris’ children joined Safiyanu in the car while Mr Idris, his uncle and his neighbour followed on motorcycles. When they got to the expressway, they were stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint, Mr Idris told PREMIUM TIMES, adding that they were thoroughly harassed and assaulted.

“Bastards!” yelled one of the soldiers. “They are thieves!” said another, according to Mr Idris. He said he would never forget those insults. He shook his head in sadness as he narrated the events of that day.

“I have 21 children,” he continued. “What crime could I have committed that will warrant young soldiers to beat me on the road,” Mr Idris said, “And I am over 60. My uncle was badly injured because one of the soldiers used a gun to hit him.”

He said another soldier dragged Safiyanu out of the car “despite seeing his condition and they kept beating him while the boy was crying.” The soldiers later accused Safiyanu of being a thief.

“I told them that my son is not a thief,” Mr Idris recalled telling the soldiers.

“In the end, they said the boy was under arrest while they sent us back home.”

Seven days later, on 28 December, Mr Idris heard from his neighbour that Safiyanu was dead and he had to pick up his remains at Kwanan Doya.

“If it weren’t for his clothes, I wouldn’t have even known it was him,” he told PREMIUM TIMES in Hausa. “I recognised him only through his clothes because his body had started stinking in the bush. It is just too hard to describe. We’re still in denial and disbelief. To this day, we cannot believe what happened. That day changed everything for us.”

Mr Idris also said he lodged a complaint at the police station. After a preliminary investigation, which included taking written statements from the complainants, and snapshots of the corpse of the victim, the police directed that the body be buried, which was done according to Islamic rites.

In a statement signed by Abubakar Siddique, a senior lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, a group of concerned Nigerians urged the government to investigate what happened in Tilde Fulbe.

“We believe that the Federal Government should, at this trying moment, promptly investigate allegations of breaches and indiscretions on such fundamental human rights as security of life, personal liberty and property, in order to halt this negative trend and provide succour to the aggrieved parties.

“By doing this, the Federal Government would have discharged its constitutional responsibilities, therefore safeguarding its image and that of the military and other security agencies,” the group said.

Military speak

Mr Yahaya, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army One Division in Kaduna, confirmed that the troops conducted an operation in Tilde Fulbe on 30 December but he denied that the army “killed or stole anything in the village.”

“Imperative to mention that 30 December 2023 was the first time troops conducted any military operation in Tilden Fulani in which one Mr Ibrahim Abubakar was arrested on suspicion of involvement in insurgent activities. In the process of investigation, Mr Ibrahim Abubakar admitted to having been an insurgent providing details of his involvement in insurgent activities including cases of kidnaps and highway raids.

“He volunteered names of five persons in the community in possession of automatic weapons including his brother. This information necessitated another raid on the village. However, on arrival at the village, troops discovered that the five suspects had all fled the village with their families. Their houses were thoroughly searched but nothing incriminating was found neither was anything taken away by the troops,” Mr Yahaya added.

Our findings, however, contradicted substantial parts of the army’s claims. By interviewing several residents, many of them still terrified, our reporting showed nearly every individual in Tilde Fulbe is aware of the abuses, having witnessed them happen, seen mourning families, or seen fleeing residents and bodies abandoned by the roadside.

The soldiers didn’t just go looking for criminals, they tortured residents and extorted them, eyewitnesses told us. We also obtained disturbing pieces of evidence suggesting war-grade violence by the military on unarmed people.

Horrid images gathered in the course of this investigation can be viewed in a separate folder here. These are graphic pictures. Beware!

Nigerian Army and history of extrajudicial killing

Over the years, the Nigerian military has been accused of human rights abuses, with rarely any punishment or action taken against the accused officers.

Amnesty International defined extrajudicial executions as unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of a government or with its complicity or acquiescence. “Unlawful killings include killings resulting from excessive use of force by law enforcement officials. They violate the right to life, as guaranteed by Nigeria’s Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,” the global rights body said.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed by state actors in the last decade. It is impossible to tell just how many. In a report published in 2015, Amnesty International found that Nigerian forces had extrajudicially executed more than 1,200 people during the Boko  Haram insurgency. 

 

In 2020, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation exposed how the Nigerian army took vengeance on defenceless people in Oyigbo, Rivers State. The investigation described that incident as what ranks among the cruellest use of excessive force against unarmed civilians in the country’s history. 

 

The carnage at Oyigbo is comparable, in its execution, to the massacres in Odi (1999) and Zaki Biam (2001), under former President Olusegun Obasanjo; and Zaria (2015) and Lagos (2020) under former President Muhammadu Buhari.

However, in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the Nigerian Army spokesperson, Onyeama Nwachukwu, said the military as a professional force, is committed to the rule of law and utmost respect for the fundamental human rights of all citizens and hence cannot be involved in extrajudicial killings and stealing of citizens valuables as alleged.

“Moreso, the Nigerian Army belongs to the Nigerian people. We know that there might be a few bad eggs. No doubt about that. But the fact remains that the Nigerian army will not annihilate citizens for no reason,” Mr Nwachukwu told PREMIUM TIMES.

He added that the troops have been warned against such unprofessional conduct, adding that when these kinds of incidents are confirmed, perpetrators are usually punished immediately through military court-martials.

Witnesses speak on extrajudicial killings in Kachia

One of the multiple witnesses interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, Mohammed Ayuba, said he heard gunshots in the early hours of 22 December. He wanted to see what happened, but because it was late and a second round often accompanied shootings, he waited.

Later, when the corpse of Mr Adamu and two teenagers were found, Mr Ayuba connected the dots.

Mr Ayuba, a veterinarian in the neighbourhood, said the young boys were not criminals or terrorists “but they were killed.”

Another witness interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, a trader, who did not want his name mentioned, said he was present at the Islamic burial rites of victims of the “extrajudicial killings.”

“It’s pathetic,” he said. “But we made sure we reported everything to the police before we buried them.”

He took our reporter, accompanied by Abdullahi Gambo, to the graveyard identifying the graves of six people. In one place, five people were buried together in a mass grave and one person was buried separately in another grave.

The gruesome killing of the young men in Tilde Fulbe happened barely one month after the killing of 80 people who were celebrating the Eid el Maulud at Tudun Biri village of Igabi LGA of Kaduna State, through aerial bombardment by the Nigerian Army.  The military authorities said the incident was a mistake but President Bola Tinubu ordered a “thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident.” 

Isa Sanusi, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said at the time: “The Nigerian authorities’ persistent failure to hold the military to account is encouraging impunity and increasingly endangering the lives of the civilians the military is supposed to be protecting.”

In 2019, after spending weeks in Nigeria, the UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions concluded that though reports of human rights violations in the North-east had decreased, “accountability for violations in the course of the conflict against Boko Haram has not yet been 

In December 2020, after a decade of preliminary examination, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said there was “a reasonable basis to believe” that war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed in the Boko Haram conflict by Nigerian security forces, as well as by Islamist insurgents. The ICC has yet to open a formal investigation.

On the several allegations against the troops, Mr Nwachukwu, the army spokesperson, said sometimes criminals hide using the uniform of the military to commit crimes for which the troops were blamed.

“We all know in this country how the terrorists and the insurgents have always impersonated the military, wearing military uniforms to carry out their nefarious activities.

“I am not ruling out the possibility of having the black ship among us but for a fact, the troops will not go to the extent of annihilating 11 young men,” he said.

More victims of ‘extrajudicial killing’

On January 7, the corpses of two other persons – Dan Asabe Abom and Abdulkadir Parma were recovered along Anguwan Makama Road, Kachia local government.

After that incident, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeder Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) issued a statement condemning the action of the Nigerian troops. MACBAN said the “trigger hungry” soldiers also “arrested four more young men from the same village and later shot and killed all of them in cold blood and dumped their bodies in the bush around Antai village in Kachia, along the road leading from Crossing to Maro of Kajuru LGA.”

“The decomposing bodies of the youths were recovered and buried by members of MACBAN, assisted by the Nigerian Police on Monday, 8th January 2024 together with one other person who was also arrested and killed in the same manner,” the group said.

MACBAN demanded “compensation be paid to the families of the victims of the crimes with a view to ameliorate the hardship and trauma inflicted on them as a result of the cold-blooded murder of their loved ones.”

Christopher Musa, previously the top commander of the counterinsurgency campaign in the northeast, and now Nigeria’s defence chief, told Reuters in November last year that the military complies with international laws prohibiting attacks on civilians and noncombatants.

 

Mr Musa said the military also adheres to its own rules of engagement and training on human rights provided by the United States, the UK and the United Nations.

 

Heartbroken families

Meanwhile, the families of Mr Yusuf, the young man who was shot publicly in a market by a yet unknown soldier, told PREMIUM TIMES that “this level of injustice is too hard to take.”

Ms Hajara, the mother of Yusuf, said life became unbearable since the death of her son. Until his death, Mr Yusuf, in his mid-20s, was a farmer, okada rider and animal rearer. He aspired to become a successful businessman to help his family and the community; aspirations that did not materialise.

It took some time to get Ms Hajara (Nura Yusuf’s mother) to narrate the incident of her son’s death, and when she did, she had to always try to fend off tears.

For Nura’s father, it is justice or nothing. The circumstance in which the ‘child he loves most’ was snatched from him by the “people employed and paid to protect him is unforgivable.”

“Even if we didn’t get justice in this life, Allah will certainly not forsake us. He is our strength and master of the day of judgement,” he said.

 

Nura’s aged parents were home on 30 December while many residents were at the market. Before sunset on that Saturday, the sad news came to them, a bitter pill they are still finding hard to swallow.

 

“He didn’t commit any crime,” Ms Hajara said. “They just shot him in an open market. And took him along and dumped his corpse for us on the road.

“I have lost so many things in life, but I did not feel so much pain like his passing. It is as if I am just living on the surface of the earth but nothing is left of me,” she said, adding, “he does everything for me, he takes me around anywhere I am going with his motorcycle.”

“Extortion of residents by the Army”

Two days after Mr Yusuf was shot, his mother said the soldiers telephoned the family demanding N400,000 from Mallam Hassan, the brother of the deceased.

She said the soldiers claimed that the money was to be used for the treatment of the victim. However, they did not respond when the brother demanded to hear the voice of Nura before giving them the money.

Also, Mr Idris, Safiyanu’s father, recalled being extorted by the soldiers.

“They searched all of us the night we were stopped at the military checkpoint and we had N18,000 that was meant for the treatment of Safiyanu,” he said, adding, “They collected all of it.”

*Photo 14: Satellite Image showing military formation in Kachia [Credit: Kabir Yusuf /Premium Times]*

Then after the gruesome murder of Magaji Umar, Akilu Abdullahi, Musa Abubakar, Ibrahim Sani and Abdulazeez Yusuf, MACBAN said the “soldiers used the phone of one of the victims to call his family and demanded N300,000, ostensibly for his release, which however never materialised.”

“The account details given by the soldier are as follows: Account Name; Halidu Altine. Name of Bank; First Bank PLC Account Number; 3124149608,” MACBAN wrote.

Our reporter confirmed from victims that on 2 January soldiers broke into two houses in the community and stole over N50,000 and bags of ginger worth several thousands of naira.

A woman who identified as Hadiza Adamu said soldiers broke into her house and stole a new box, filled with materials and new clothes for a bride-to-be. She said they also stole N53,000 and sacks of ginger.

 

Earlier on 27 December, the residence of Hadiza’s neighbour, Abdullahi Fada, was raided by the men of the Nigerian Army. Mr Fada said he was discharged from hospital that day after a surgery.

 

“They came here, and thoroughly harassed us, Myself and my mum, because nobody else was around. They asked about my children’s whereabouts. But my aged mother told them that we don’t have grown-up children in the house. They are all toddlers,” Mr Fada recalled, “It’s like they didn’t believe us so they threatened to shoot us.”

One of the soldiers dragged Mr Fada and cocked his gun, threatening to kill him.

 

“They raided all the five rooms in the house and used knives to cut down all the chairs in the house. Then they asked for money which I said I don’t have. They carted away sacks of ginger we have in the house. And barely a week later, they returned and took away my motorcycle.”

 

At about 2 a.m. on 21 December 2023, soldiers also invaded the house of Bayero Abubakar, a 65-year-old farmer in Tilde Fulbe. Mr Abubakar told PREMIUM TIMES that he was asleep but dogs barking prompted him to get up.

“When I woke up, I saw the soldiers’ vans parked outside with some soldiers standing right in front of them. They entered all the rooms in my house and scared us. My grandson was the first person they brought outside and asked him for money. He had only N2,000 with him and they collected it,” he said.

“None of us had extra money in the house that day. So on their way out, they took my Bajaj motorcycle and got away with it.”

 

Before now, Mr Abubakar was rearing cattle for several years but he lost everything about two years ago when over 200 of his cows were stolen. He now farms ginger, maize, wheat and millet which he is using to take care of his family.

 

The Nigerian Army has maintained that its troops did not engage in any of these acts.

“The Nigerian Army will never commit such atrocious acts,” army spokesperson Mr Nwachukwu told PREMIUM TIMES. “These allegations are mostly brought up anytime the Nigerian military is making progress in its fight against counter-terrorism.”

Mr Yahaya, the army publicist in Kaduna, also insisted that “at no time have troops of the Division killed or executed any Fulani herder or any innocent citizen, collected their money, motorcycles and ginger.”

Despite their denial, PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the military is “interfacing and negotiating with the community and families of victims.”

Mr Momale, the executive vice chairman of the Kaduna Peace Commission, said since the report of the situation in Kachia LGA became public, they have engaged in discussions with the security establishment to know what the dynamics are and to know how to forestall any similar action that may jeopardise the wellbeing of citizens.

He added that the military told them they were investigating the issue. “We are happy with the response of the military authorities and the extent to which they have gone to carry out investigations into the issues and the way they have continued to interface with the communities that reported such incidents.”

On 14 January, Daily Trust also reported that the Nigerian Army had commenced an investigation into the killing of the community members.

Similarly, the families of the victims and at least two witnesses told this newspaper that the military sent its officers to “apologise to the families and promise they are investigating the issue.”

“I am optimistic that at the end of the entire process, we will come out stronger, more united and we will be able to get a higher level of cooperation from our numerous communities across the state,” Mr Momale told PREMIUM TIMES.

This reporting was completed with the support of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development and the Open Society Foundations