‘My Child Has Bullet In His Chest’ — Survivor

A survivor of the 2015 Zaria massacre in Kaduna State, Hajiya Jummai Karofi, has shared her deep sorrow over the death of her five children during the tragedy.

According to Vanguard, Karofi voiced her despair, doubting the possibility of receiving justice for the incident.

Karofi said, “I am a mother of nine. I lost five in the Zaria massacre — three biological children and two adopted.

“But I gave birth to nine children. One died naturally and three were shot dead in Zaria. One is carrying a bullet in his chest right now and I also was severely injured.

“My experience was traumatic. It was terrible. I saw more corpses that I never thought I would see in my life. They were killing everybody, shooting indiscriminately.

“They were not selecting who to shoot. I don’t know why they did what they did. There was no reason for it at all.

“Personally, I have lost hope for justice. The movement had so far been targeted twice for no reason, during this current administration.”

Karofi narrated her experience to Vanguard at the Islamic Movement in Nigeria’s (Shi’ites) 8th anniversary of the massacre in Abuja.

The event was held with the theme: ‘The Site of Memory: An Ardent Resistance of Our Fallen Heroes’, on Saturday.

Speaking on the topic, ‘Women and Children Rights Violation during Zaria Massacre’, one of the guest speakers, Prof Isah Hassan Mshelgaru reiterated calls for the prosecution of the executors of the December 12, 2015 massacre in Zaria, Kaduna State.

Mshelgaru also called and solicited justice on behalf of the victims.

He called on the attention of human rights advocates, at local and international levels, to the matter.

Mshelgaru said, “Amnesty International and similar bodies, the international community, the claimants of democracy and civility championships; UNICEF, whose area of responsibility is mothers and children affairs; feminists, at local and international levels and advocates of women’s rights.

“Taking similar measures to the global impacts on the Palestinian issue we can do the same and attract sympathy for the Zaria 2015 rights violation victims.

“They were not only kidnapped but sexually harassed and mercilessly murdered by state terrorists.”

Mshelgaru noted that these awareness efforts, if well harnessed, would help prepare the ground for arraigning “the heartless violators before the International Court of Justice with war crimes or similar charges”.