Days after military airstrikes killed at least 10 people in Gidan Sama and Rumtuwa communities in the Silame Local Government Area of Sokoto State on Christmas Day, some residents of the agrarian community have rejected claims by the military that those hit were terrorists.

Reports indicated that the fighter jet was targeting Lakurawa terrorists in the areas, but in the process dropped explosives that killed residents, and livestock, and burnt several food silos and houses.

Although the Nigerian Air Force When our correspondent visited the LG headquarters on Friday, the mood was tense, and residents wore long faces.

Many people from different communities gathered at the residence of the Local Government Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammad, to commiserate with him about the incident.

Muhammad insisted that those killed were farmers with no links to terrorists or the alleged Lakurawa sect, as claimed by the military. promised to launch a thorough investigation into the incident, the NAF spokesperson, Air Vice Marshal Olusola Akinboyewa, defended the airstrikes, stating that they were carried out based on credible intelligence from multiple sources and after confirmatory aerial surveillance.

A villager, who did not identify himself, said, “Our food store was razed down. You know, we just finished harvesting, and everything we had stored is gone. All our animals, including camels, cows, goats, and others, are all dead.”

A young girl, who identified herself simply as Hauwa’u, said she witnessed the moment her parents and three younger siblings were burned to death in the airstrike by the military. “I saw them burning: my mother, my father, and my three younger siblings,” she stated

He maintained that intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and human intelligence were carried out over an extended period before the operation was conducted.

The director also mentioned that the operation was initially scheduled for an earlier date but was postponed to avoid human casualties. Reacting, a senior government official in the state, who spoke on condition of anonymity, dismissed the new statement of the military.

He reaffirmed that eyewitnesses confirmed that it was the strike from the aircraft that killed the residents. He said, “How can they deny what they did? There was nothing like maybe it hit something or whatever.

“Our preliminary investigation on the spot confirmed that it was what they threw that caused the killing; they should stop telling lies.”

PUNCH