At least three Fulani herders have died after being tortured by personnel of the Nigerian Army Kakura of Chikun local government area of Kaduna State and 14 others were injured.
Daily Trust reports that the herders were tortured by soldiers under the guise of being suspected of banditry.
The Fulani herders were certified dead at 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Kaduna.
The herders were brutally arrested while they were on the trial for their theft of cattle in Kakura’s nearby village.
A preliminary security investigation revealed that the brutalised herders were legal residents of a Fulani community that lived at the periphery of Kakuri for over 40 years.
The Army who acted after being tipped about the movement of the herders by operatives of vigilantes in the area, defended its atrocity on the herders saying it was a case of ‘mistaken identity.’
Auwal Abdullahi Aliyu, a security analyst said the excesses of the local vigilante if left unchecked could become a major hinderance in the fight against insecurity.
Mr Aliyu added that unless the security agencies take active measures at ensuring that people arrested are being properly investigated to avoid taking jungle justice on innocent people, unsuspecting members of the public will suffer in the hands of brutal security operatives.
“How many jungle justices have been committed on such people? Where their communities have not committed any crime but their properties are destroyed and they are even killed, gradually, such people start to think of how they can take vengeance and this is exactly what is happening in this country.
“Their responsibility is to save lives since these people have not been declared by a competent court of law as bandits and so therefore the doctors at the hospitals have no right to reject them. The doctors swore an oath to save lives and if they fail to do that, it means the hospitals needs to be sanctioned,” he said.
Kabiru Adamu, a security and intelligence expert, explained that what happened to those who were dehumanized by the military officers could worsen the security situation of the country.
Mr. Adamu noted that the military officers, according to their rule of engagements, are not permitted to torture or dehumanise any suspect the way it appeared in the trending video.
He said the troops are only permitted to defend themselves by using their weapons or engaging their adversaries in gun duels during any attempted attack on them.
He, however, said that the dehumanized person should get a legal representative on their behalf to prosecute their case.
Center for Democracy Development released a report in 2021 where it said that Nigerian security agents extrajudiciously killed 13,241 Nigerians in a period spanning 10 years with an average of 1,324 persons killed per year.
