A group of grieving mothers of the JIRE DOLE network (Justice is Must) have demanded that Nigerian government should produce thousands young men and boys allegedly arrested and detained in the military custody since 2011 for allegedly being members of Boko Haram insurgents.
The protesting women, who were wailing and crying, displayed the photographs of their missing relations in Maiduguri on Thursday as they called on President Muhammadu Buhari to show them the graves of their children.
They disclosed that their children were arrested by the military mostly in Maiduguri at the height of the fight against the insurgents.
The leader of the mothers’ network, Hajja Gana Suleiman, said that when there is no justice, there will be no peace.
She said the mother have waited for years to hear what happened to their sons, saying none of whom were ever taken to court.
“Ever since my son was arrested in October 2011, I have been looking for him. I went to Giwa Barracks and saw him a week after his arrest. I filed a case in court, but nothing ever happened; I have never seen him again.
“We need to know what happened, even if our sons are dead; It is time that President Buhari’s government acknowledges that thousands of young men were arrested and died in military custody. They must release the list with all their names and give us mothers the disclosure we are begging for,” she said.
Hajja Gana is among hundreds of women who came together in 2016, to form a network of survivors and relatives determined to campaign for truth, justice and reparation.
“We know that President Buhari can do the right thing and give us justice. That is why we are today asking him to assist us,” Hajja Gana said while weeping uncontrollably.
One of the mothers, Fatima Hassan, explained that her son was a banker as at when he was arrested and detained by the military, adding that after Boko Haram insurgents invaded army’ Giwa Barrack in 2014, he went missing.
“His children kept asking me, where is their father? I told them that he was arrested by military on his way home after he closed from office that fateful day, after Boko Haram attacked Giwa Barrack; people saw him around Polo area that day but since then we never hear or see him again.
“I am appealing to President Buhari and the military, if they had killed him, please they should show me his grave so that I can tell his children that their father is dead,” Fatima begged.
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