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Incident on 5 November 2014 [+] Print this page

Location: Potiskum, Yobe [+]

Country: Nigeria [+]

Violation types: Extrajudicial Execution [+]

Perpetrator classifications: Military [+]

Location


This incident took place in Potiskum, Yobe, Nigeria [+]

Description


According to Amnesty International: "EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION OF 15 MEN AND BOYS IN POTISKUM, 5 NOVEMBER 2014 On 5 November 2014, early in the morning, soldiers and Mobile Police (MOPOL) officers in two flatbed trucks drove to Dogo Tebo ward, in Potiskum, Yobe state. Residents told Amnesty International that the soldiers and MOPOL officers went into several houses and brought out 16 men and boys, aged between 13 and 40, and drove them away. Abubakar Doho (not his real name) told Amnesty International that they were looking for a specific individual who was not at home, and that the men might have been arrested in his place. He said the men were taken to a police station and 15 of them were then transferred to the military barracks in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) of Potiskum. Another eyewitness to the arrest, who lived in the same street as the men arrested, confirmed the arrest and said that later in the afternoon, the police returned to arrest him and three others; they were released later that evening. Residents told Amnesty International that they heard gunshots at around 10pm in the evening. The next morning, Abubakar and other residents and relatives of the men went to the mortuary in Potiskum General Hospital because they feared the men had been killed. They saw the dead bodies of 15 of the young men detained on 5 November. Abubakar Doho described the corpses to Amnesty International: “I saw the 15 bodies. They shot them. Some in the head, some in the stomach and some in the chest. They beat them thoroughly and tied them with rope. The rope had been removed, but I saw the mark around the hands. There were bruises on most of the boys.” No autopsy was carried out and the relatives took the bodies with them for burial. A military source with knowledge of the operations in the north-east confirmed that the military had shot and killed the men." [+]

Sources

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Publication Date Publisher Publication Title Access Date Archive Link
02 June 2015 Amnesty International Stars on their shoulders. Blood on their hands. War crimes committed by the Nigerian military. 44/1657/2015. 27 September 2018