Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, has firmly defended the recent airstrike on Jilli in Borno State, saying the operation was not a tragic misfire but a calculated disruption of insurgent logistics.
Speaking during an appearance on Arise TV following a high-level security meeting chaired by Bola Tinubu, Musa rejected widespread claims that civilians were among those killed.
Instead, he argued that the location had evolved into a critical support hub for terrorist groups.
“That area had been banned for a very long time because the den where they use to meet normally with people that supply them with fertilizer for IEDs—they give them food, fuel, and all these issues—and normally they operate at a very short time and disappear. Unfortunately for them, then that day we were able to see them and were able to take a strike.
“And you know, it’s really disturbing when you hear how people want to change the narrative to make it look as if they were just innocent people.
“Nobody in that area was innocent, none of them. And I can attest to you that if any of them is innocent, they would have said it,” he revealed.
Stressing that the military had repeatedly warned civilians to stay away from the location because of its links to insurgent activities, the Defence Minister noted that the high profits from trading in the area continued to attract people despite the security risks.
“They knew why they were there. They were making “big business,” I tell you. If you take a bag of rice in that area, you sell it for about 150,000. The money is much, so the attraction is so much. People buy fuel, take a full tank, go there, empty it, and sell to them, and they make so much money.
“So the attraction is for them to make business, and that’s what keeps them going. That’s what we’ve warned, and these are areas we’ve told them: there’s nobody there. What are you doing there? What kind of business? Who are you doing business with? Those are the answers they should tell,” Gen. Musa insisted.
Earlier, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, said the Jilli market in Gubio Local Government Area—where a recent military airstrike reportedly killed dozens of civilians—was a notorious hub for bandits and insurgent logistics, insisting the facility had been officially shut down five years ago.
In a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Adviser on Media, Dauda Iliya, the governor described Jilli market as a location long associated with insurgent activity, even as controversy trails reports of civilian casualties from the strike.
“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,” the Governor said.
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