Last year, Amnesty International ( AI ), called for an investigation of 9 senior commanders including Maj. Gen. Ahmadu Mohammed for possible criminal responsibility for war crimes including the deaths of
more than 8,000 detainees since 2011.
Mohammed was commanding officer when soldiers killed around 640 unarmed detainees after Boko Haram’s armed fighters attacked the Giwa barracks in northeast Maiduguri city, according to Amnesty. President Buhari in June, 2015, promised to investigate the allegations and deal with all alleged abuses by the military, but nothing has been done.
Mohammed was the commander of the war theater when Boko Haram took control of a large swath of Nigeria’s northeast where the armed group declared an Islamic caliphate, and when the group kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok town.
He was retired in 2014 after mutinying soldiers shot at him, revolting because they said a dozen colleagues killed by Boko Haram in a night ambush on the road from Chibok had been unnecessarily sent into danger.
He was reinstated quietly in January, 2016,at his own request. “Young men and boys, rounded up by the military, were either shot, starved, suffocated or tortured to death and no one has yet been held to account. It is unthinkable that Major General Mohammed could resume command of troops before an investigation has even begun.
His reinstatement makes mockery of commitments to end war crimes and underlines the monumental failure of the government to stamp out impunity for war crimes at the highest level,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
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