The Nigerian Army has faulted the claim of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) that 16 of its members were shot dead by soldiers on Monday.
The religious sect had carried out a protest march on Monday as part of activities for its three-day ‘Arbaeen Symbolic Trek’, which commenced on Sunday.
However, trouble started when the group approached another checkpoint, located at Nyanya. It was gathered that security operatives on duty, drafted in to mount a roadblock in the area, asked them to stop, but the group decided to proceed with the protest and ignored the order. This led to fisticuffs between the group the security operatives, forcing the Police to open fire on the protesters at close range.
The protesters also pelted the soldiers and hurled petrol bombs at them, while the Police took cover with the Armoured Personnel Carrier and started firing indiscriminately. IMN claimed 16 of its members lost their lives in that incident.
However, the Nigerian Army denied the figure, insisting that three Shi’ites lost their lives. Four soldiers were also injured in the incident.
The statement read: “Troops of the Nigerian Army deployed on routine duty at Kugbo/Karu bridge checkpoint of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were attacked by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) sect at about 3:00pm on 29th October 2018.
“The sect in massive numbers forced their way into the troops checkpoint after overrunning the Police Force. The Police withrew back to own troops position to join efforts to repel them. They fired weapons at own troops, throwing bottle cannisters with fuel, large stones, catapults with dangerous objects and other dangerous items at troops, causing bodily harm and stopping motorist movement, breaking their windscreen and causing heavy traffic.
“Troops repelled the attack in conjunction with the Nigerian Police Force to stop the situation from further deteriorating. Unfortunately, during the encounter 3 members of the sect were killed while 4 soldiers sustained various degrees of injuries and are being treated at a military medical facility.”
On Sunday, when the trek began, the protesters also clashed with soldiers, and while the Nigerian Army confirmed that three members of the sect died, the group had insisted that it lost more than three members.
Meanwhile, the Army said the situation had been brought under control and normalcy had been restored in the general area.
Residents were also urged to go about their normal activities “without fear of molestation”.
