The Defence Headquarters, on Monday, faulted a report by the United Nations that 110 civilians were killed by Boko Haram in Saturday onslaught on farmers in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, in the wake of the massacre had claimed that at least 110 persons were killed.
However, reacting to the UN claim, the Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, said as of Monday morning, 43 corpses were recovered from the incident scene in the Zabarmari area of the northeast state.
According to Enenche, the troops that visited the scene immediately after the attack counted the corpses and just 43 deaths were recorded.
He said this while featuring on Channels Television’s programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ monitored by KAFTANPost.
He said, “I knew it (the issue) is going to come up particularly because it is coming from the United Nations and not a source that does not want to be identified. This is a source that has identified itself that a 110 specifically (were murdered).”
Meanwhile, some colleague of the slaughtered farmers had said that some of their colleagues were still missing.
They made this known to Governor Zulum yesterday during the funeral of the victims of the gruesome attack.
Reacting to this, Enenche said he had contacted the field commandants who admitted that some farmers’ whereabouts were unknown as of the time the victims were buried.
He, however, said that they had started returning to the village.
“Of course, some people ran into the bush and they started coming back and trickling in.
“As at 2pm yesterday (Sunday), I called them and they got back to me at about 7pm yesterday, still counting, looking if they will recover (more corpses). We call it Exploitation after Action Review.
“Probably we may count up to the figure he (Kallon) gave in the future but as it is now, what we have counted with the locals is still 43 and we are hoping that we don’t get beyond that.
“This is the real situation. I did not sleep, we had to follow it because this is very relevant coming from the United Nations.” Enenche said.
