The Nigerian military asked a man it declared wanted to go home after he reported at one of its facilities in Borno State.
Ahmed Bolori, the coordinator of the Fa’ash Foundation and the Partnership Against Violent Extremism and resident of Maiduguri, was declared wanted alongside two others on Sunday.
The Nigerian Army in a statement said the three, which included journalist, Ahmad Salkida and Aisha Wakil, a lawyer, were declared wanted for their alleged ties to the Boko Haram sect.
The Army said the three refused to provide useful information to authorities despite having clear and unfettered access to the sect and also held them responsible for the Boko Haram video that was released on Sunday.
The video purportedly showed the Army conducting area bombardment of an unknown location where the abducted Chibok girls are kept, killing many of them in the process.
The Defence Headquarters denied killing the girls and said it was also analysing the video to establish its authenticity.
In a message released by Farook Kperoogi, a U.S.-based Nigerian journalism professor, Mr. Bolori reported at “the top military barracks in Maiduguri, waited for more than two hours, but there was no one to interrogate or arrest him.”
Mr. Kperoogi posted the development on his Facebook page which he said was part of the conversation he had with Mr. Bolori.
Mr. Kperoogi also attached a WhatsApp conversation in which Mr. Bolori could be seen discussing with an official of the Defence Military Intelligence about how and where he could turn himself in for interrogations.
Mr. Kperoogi said Mr. Bolori was later told to “go home” after spending more than two hours waiting and making frantic calls to Army hierarchy to come and detain him, having been declared wanted.
The announcement by the Army declaring Messrs. Bolori, Salkida and Wakil wanted has triggered debates across the world.
The spokesperson for the Army, Sani Usman, could not be reached to comment for this story Monday morning. He did not answer or return calls made to him.
Read the full statement by Mr. Kperoogi below:
It is now self-evident that no one in the highest reaches of governance and security enforcement in Nigeria is thinking. How can you declare people “wanted” when you haven’t even invited them for questioning–and they haven’t resisted your invitation? I just got off the phone with Ambassador Ahmed Umar Bolori, one of the people declared “wanted” by the Nigerian military.
He told me he called the Chief of Army Staff, the spokesperson of the Nigerian military who announced him “wanted,” and other top military officers and said he was at their beck and call and didn’t need to be declared “wanted” since he wasn’t in hiding.
He then went ahead and turned himself in at the top military barracks in Maiduguri, waited for more than two hours, but there was no one to interrogate or arrest him.
He called and texted the chief of army staff and the military spokesperson again and pleaded with them to send someone to detain, arrest, interrogate, or do whatever they wanted to do to him because he wanted to clear his name.
He was later told to go home and return the following day! They told a “wanted” man to go home and come back the next day! Can you believe that? First, he is personally known to the chief of army staff and to the military spokesman. These people also know his home in Maiduguri.
They know where to get him if they want to. Yet they declared him “wanted.” Is there any parallel to this level of puzzling incompetence in the world? Who declares people “wanted” without any interest in seeing, much less interrogating, them?
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