By Kevwe Ebireri

The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, said the Nigerian Army and the Department of Security Services, DSS, has failed to prove that the eight persons killed in an uncompleted building in Apo, Abuja, on September 20, 2013, were indeed members of the Boko Haram sect.

Chairman of the NHRC panel set up to investigate the killings, Chidi Odinkalu, who is also chairman of the Commission, while presenting a report of its findings said that the victims of the incident were not combatants and were entitled to protection by the security agents.

Odinkalu said the victims were merely poor civilians who used the building as shelter and had no connection with the terrorist group neither were they in possession of weapons.

The Commission held that the use of force on unarmed civilians was inappropriate, noting that no weapons was found in the building, before or after the incident.

The Commission therefore asked that N10 million be paid to the families of those killed and N5million to each of the 11 injured persons as compensation by the federal government.

However, the assistant director of legal service, Defence Headquarters, Godwin Anyalemechi, a colonel, said that the Army was likely going to appeal the judgement as it cannot be proved that the bullets which killed the victims were those of its men since no forensic examination was conducted on the bodies.