Nigerian president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has directed the National Security Adviser, Sarki Mukhtar, to immediately look into the circumstances that led to the death of the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Muhammed Yusuf, in police custody last Thursday.
Mr. Yar’Adua said this on Tuesday, when he addressed State House correspondents on the visit of the president of Benin Republic, Yayi Boni, to Nigeria.
“This is an incident that will be investigated, together with the overall events that have happened,” Mr. Yar’Adua said. “Yesterday, I directed the National Security Adviser to carry out a post-mortem with the security agencies as a first step, so that we can have a full report of what has happened during the crisis, including how the leader of the Boko Haram [sect] was killed.”
According to military reports, Mr. Yusuf was captured alive by a military task force last Thursday along the Gamboru-Ngala border between Nigeria and Chad, and was subsequently handed over to the police.
The military said he was unharmed during the arrest. Hours later, however, he was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds by the police.
The Nigerian human rights community has remained unequivocal on the call for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Yusuf’s death, with a view to bringing those found culpable to book.
Mr. Yar’Adua however said any further action on the incident would wait till the submission of the report. “It is after we have gotten the report, which I hope before the end of the week the National Security Adviser will make available and when we examine this report, to determine what actions to take, whether we need to carry out further investigation into the entire matter, because it is really a very serious issue.”
Rule of law
He said he had always emphasised his administrations’s uncompromising stance on the rule of law since it came into power. “Everybody in this country and all officials are aware, clearly and unambiguously, of the stance of this administration on the rule of law and indeed my personal commitment and firm belief that it is the rule of law that will anchor good governance and progress in this country,” he said.
“Actions like this, when they happen, you do not rush into taking precipitate action. We try to investigate to confirm and make sure that we get the facts as they happen.
“So this is the action I have taken when I came back from Brazil yesterday. I met with all the security agencies and decided on this course of action.”
The president was criticised by several commentators, following his decision to travel to Brazil at the height of the sectarian crisis involving the Boko Haram sect. Just before he left, Mr. Yar’Adua said he had told his security chiefs to do all that was necessary to curb the violence.
On Monday, state governors in the northern part of Nigeria also agreed, at a meeting in Kaduna, to work together to prevent future occurrences. The governors, among other things, agreed to monitor preachers and sanction those whose preaching is deemed to be out of sync with mainstream thinking.
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