The African Democratic Congress and African Action Congress have condemned airstrikes carried out by the Nigerian Air Force in Borno and Yobe.
“It is quite tragic and unfortunate. We believe that they are going to be investigated because it is not the first time. I can’t remember where the Nigerian army mistakenly dropped the bomb on innocent civilians,” Bolaji Abdullahi, the spokesman for ADC, told the Peoples Gazette on Monday.
Peoples Gazette reported the airstrike that reportedly killed 200 people at Jilli market on Saturday.
He, however, noted that a thorough investigation should be carried out to find out whether it was truly a mistake or it was a deliberate act.
“That investigation needs to be carried out to ensure that it never happens again because we mustn’t allow the situation to get to a point Nigerian people will now have to choose whether to be afraid of the bandits or to be afraid of our own soldiers.
“The military have their own hierarchy and they need to employ that internal mechanism to do an investigation. If they need to do that, the Nigerian legislature, which is the direct representatives of the people, needs to set up a committee to investigate what happened,” Mr Abdullahi explained.
Mr Abdullahi urged state and federal lawmakers representing Borno and Yobe to lead the charge to find out exactly what happened.
“We feel that the government ought to have done a lot more than what they are doing and what is worrisome for us is that it’s becoming almost a routine that people die in Nigeria,” the ADC spokesman stated. “We believe, whatever the government is doing, is not working and out of desperation to find a solution, we cannot find a solution out of desperation without bombing our own people.”
Similarly, in a statement on Monday, AAC’s spokesman, Rex Elanu, said civilians suffered no fewer than 19 accidental airstrikes since 2017.
“It is unacceptable that while terrorists continue to overrun communities, slaughter military personnel, and abduct citizens with alarming ease, the same state that has failed to decisively confront these threats has turned its firepower on defenseless civilians”
From 2017 to date, under the watch of the All Progressives Congress government, Nigeria has witnessed over 19 accidental airstrikes on civilian populations, according to the AAC.
The opposition party said, “The Devastating Tudun Biri drone strike on December 3, 2023. This strike by the Nigerian Armed Forces left over 85 civilians dead. On December 25, 2024, a Nigerian Air Force airstrike, part of Operation Fasan Yamma against terrorists in Silame LGA of Sokoto state mistakenly hit the villages of Gidan Bisa and Rumtuwa, resulting in at least 10–13 civilian deaths and several injuries.
“The January 2025 bombing of Tungar Kara village, located in the Maradun/Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State where 16 – 20 civilians were reportedly killed, with several others injured.”
