About 13 communities in Konshisha and Gwer East Local Government Areas of Benue State are demanding the sum of N50 billion from the Nigerian army, following recent attacks by soldiers on defenceless citizens.

FIJ had reported how about 15 truckloads of Nigerian soldiers laid siege to Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue, following the killing of 12 soldiers by armed bandits.

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The soldiers had killed scores of defenceless civilians and displaced hundreds of women and children, in the name of fishing out the killers of their colleagues. 

In a letter addressed to Attahiru Ibrahim, the Chief of Army Staff, the legal counsel of the communities condemned the soldiers revenge mission which led to the lost of lives and properties.

“Whilst the unlawful and unjustifiable killing of a human being, including a soldier, is a criminal act, the wholesale razing down, in an elaborate revenge operation, of communities; and the killing of innocent members of any community rightly or wrongly, to habour the criminals responsible for such murders, is also a heinous crime that deserves to be punished or redressed,” a part of the letter read.

The counsel insisted that no law, local or international, permits the military or any other person to embark on such revenge mission.

“In view of the above, we have the instructions from our clients to claim and demand the sum of N50 billion as reparations and compensatory damages from your office (jointly or severally), for the unlawful full-scale military operations in the above-named communities.”