Falana urges probe of alleged killing of agitators

A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has urged the Federal Government to “set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the alleged killing” of some activists in the country.

Falana spoke in Jos, Plateau State, at the 2016 Law Week of the state’s branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

He cited the alleged killing of members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).

Falana said the probe became necessary because the Nigerian Army had accepted that it killed five protesters, instead of the 150 alleged by the Amnesty International.

He spoke on a paper titled: War Against Corruption-Issues and the Challenges Confronting the Judiciary.

He said: “Last week, the Amnesty International released a damning report on the brutal killing of 150 members of the IPOB by the Nigerian Army.

However, the army had denied the report.

“In joining issues with the human rights group, the army must have forgotten that it had issued a statement on the issue on May 31 this year. In the report, it claimed that it had “in the aftermath of the firefight that ensued, many of its troops sustained varying degrees of injury.