More facts seem to be hitting the surface as reports now confirmed that the eight people who were shot dead by security operatives in Abuja had no link with the dreaded militant group Boko Haram.
A 20-year-old satchet water hawker has denied being a member of the raging insurgent group, Boko Haram, after he was attacked alongside several co- habitants of an uncompleted building in Abuja.
He cried out in pains; “We are not Boko Haram. “I sell pure water and none of us are Boko Haram. The soldiers just arrived suddenly and started shooting at us.”
Besides, this is contrary to the claims by the spokesperson of the State Security Service, (SSS) Marilyn Ogar after the incident.
Ogar claimed in a recent statement thus: “They led the security team to the uncompleted building where arms were purported to have been buried underground. No sooner had the team commenced digging for the arms than they came under heavy gunfire attack by other Boko Haram elements within the area.”
There are reports that sleeping mats and cooking utensils were the items found belonging to the squatters with the blood stains that “splattered on the walls of the building from the unusual attack on innocent civilians by the Nigerian military claiming to be fighting Boko Haram”.
The SSS had insisted that they killed the suspected civilians after they first came under attack while trying to dig out weapons hidden underground by the insurgents.
Nevertheless, one of the injured inhabitants of the building revealed categorically that the soldiers withdraw from the operation after realizing they were attacking and killing the innocent.
“It was after the attack that some policemen and the SSS came to the scene and even tried to help those of us that survived to get to hospital,” one of the attacked persons disclosed.
He also pointed out that they are day labourers who work in the town and usually stayed in uncompleted buildings for their nights after paying the guards securing to those buildings.
“This morning we were woken up by a surprising hail of bullets from the uniformed soldiers.
Also, he disclosed that there was an emissary from an army general that had given them a five-day ultimatum to quit the building but that “today’s slaughter was carried out before they could move from the building”.
It would be recalled that the security agents attacked a street located behind Zone E of the Apo Legislative Quarters early Friday morning, killing at least seven and injuring 17 others, after a random spray of bullets.
All the surviving 17 victims have however, blatantly denied membership of the dreaded group when news men interviewed them at the hospital in Abuja.