Jilli Airstrike: Tinubu Meets Security Chiefs, IGP At Aso Rock

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has held a security meeting with Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting follows the airstrike at Jilli Market on the border of Borno and Yobe states.

About 200 people, including civilians, were reportedly killed, while several others sustained injuries and are receiving treatment in hospitals within the area.

The meeting, which began at about 2:30pm, also came shortly after the President’s return to Abuja following visits to Plateau, Ogun, Lagos and Bayelsa states.

President Tinubu returned to Abuja on Friday after the four-state tour, during which he commissioned projects and condoled with the people of Plateau over the attack in Rukuba area of the state.

Those at the meeting included the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; the Chief of Defence Staff; the Chief of Army Staff; the Chief of Air Staff; the Director-General of the Department of State Services; and the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu.

Presidency sources said the meeting, held after the Jilli Market strike, may not be unconnected with briefings by security chiefs on the incident.

Prominent Nigerians, particularly from the North, have called for an independent probe into the incident, even as military authorities have commenced an investigation.

The Nigerian Air Force said it carried out mop-up airstrikes on identified terrorist locations in the Jilli axis of Borno State, but did not indicate that any civilian location was hit.

Amnesty International condemned the strike, calling for an independent investigation and describing it as evidence of “the Nigerian military’s disregard for the lives of those it supposedly exists to protect.”

Reacting, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, said the state government had closed Jilli market five years ago over its alleged use as a hub by insurgents and their logistics suppliers.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Dauda Iliya, the governor warned residents against aiding, harbouring, or providing logistical support to Boko Haram insurgents.

“I have been properly briefed on the airstrike carried out by the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai on Jilli market, a border town between Borno and Yobe states. Let me state categorically that the Borno State Government closed Jilli and Gazabure markets five years ago.”