Group issues ultimatum for investigation into alleged killing of citizen by Army

By Dansu Peter 

The Save Nigeria Group has  issued a seven-day ultimatum for the federal government to commence investigation into alleged killing of one Sixtus Terfa Akure by officers of the Nigerian Army. 

The late Akure, who was a Senior Inspector of Taxes with the Benue State Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, was said to have been found dead in the early hours of January 16, 2022, around Aper Aku Estate in Makurdi, the state capital.

In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, date January 17, 2022, and copied to the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, the Senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives, British, American, German, Japanese, Chinese Embassies and the National Human Rights Commission, the Save Nigeria Movement informed that Akure was killed on Friday, January 15, 2022, by men of the Nigerian Army and his mangled body found the next day. 

The letter signed by T.D. Sorkaa Esq., a solicitor to Mr Solomon Semaka and the Save Nigeria Movement, noted: "Our brief further reveals through the chairman, BIRS, in a statement after his death that 'the late Sixtus was whisked away last night by military personnel in what has become a regular occurrence, and his body was found early hours of Friday around Aper Aku Estate by the roadside.'

"Moreover, our brief reveals, according to Ukan Kuru, a social media activist, from information he gathered from the late Sixtus' close relative who revealed to him that some men of the Nigerian Army came in their truck at the North Bank tax point to intimidate BIRS officers on duty. The junior colleagues of the late Sixtus all fles but as a senior officer he stood his grounds to know what the problem is.

"The Nigerian Army officers descended on him, beating him blue black before forcing him into the their vehicle and took him to unknown location, only for his body to be seen the following morning by the roadside."

While appealing to the president to use his position as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to immediately, within seven days, to set up an inquiry to unravel the root cause of Akure's death and the Nigerian Army's involvement, the group demanded a compensation in the sum of N500 million to the family of the deceased.