By Jude Opara, Abuja
A Human Rights Activist with the Concern and Patriotic Citizen Human Rights, Hamza Dantani, Esq has urged the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar to with immediate effect halt what he described as the incessant killing of civilians by men of the Force in mistaken strikes.
Dantani in a petition he sent to the Air chief titled; “Repeated erroneous airstrikes and the continued killing of innocent civilians in Northern Nigeria: A call for immediate end to the incessant killings by the Nigerian Air Force” and made available to newsmen said it is regrettable that over the years, innocent civilians have been killed by these bombings.
The Rights Activist gave a detailed account of some of the deadly strikes that have killed a number of civilians in different parts of the region.
He wrote, “I write to you today with deep sorrow and mounting outrage over yet another tragic incident involving a Nigerian Air Force fighter jet, which, on the 2nd of June 2025, mistakenly killed at least 20 vigilantes during an operation targeting criminal elements in Zamfara State.
“This is not an isolated event. On the 11th of January, 2025, at least 16 civilians were similarly killed in Zamfara under the same tragic circumstances. On September 27, 2024, 24 lives were lost in a deadly airstrike in Kaduna State — all allegedly mistaken for bandits.
“In 2023, Human Rights Watch documented two significant incidents: one in Nasarawa state, where an airstrike by the air force killed 39 people in January, and another in Tundun Biri of Kaduna state in December, when an army airstrike during a religious celebration resulted in 85 deaths.
“In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people who had been displaced by jihadist violence in a town near the Cameronian border. These are but a few among numerous fatal military errors that have resulted in the deaths of innocent Nigerians in the Northwest and North-East since 2017.
“The repetition of these so-called “accidents” raises grave questions about the competence of the Nigerian Air Force under your leadership. They reveal a critical failure in military accountability and operational protocols.
“It is no longer tenable to dismiss these killings as mere mistakes. A mistake repeated again and again — with devastating consequences — ceases to be a mistake; it becomes a pattern—a pattern of recklessness, negligence, and utter disregard for civilian lives”.
