The Nigerian military has, again, expressed regrets over the drone attack that killed and injured many people at Tudun Biri village in Kaduna, promising to improve its protocols.

“We will learn from this experience and improve on our operational processes,” the director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, told journalists on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Buba assured that the Nigerian military would continue to conduct its operations in a manner consistent with international laws and rules of engagement.

While dismissing the insinuation that a lack of inter-service synergy could have led to the mishap, he said military operations are conducted nationwide jointly with the army, navy and air force.

“On the incident that happened, I can assure you that the military learns from its experiences and will continue to make improvements as we go along. It is an incident that has happened and like I mentioned in my brief, we are determined to deal with it squarely.

“There will be need for protocols, there will be need for processes to be improved upon and this I assure you, we will put in place to ensure that in future we have near to zero occurrences,” Mr Buba promised.

On the casualties figure, Mr Buba said the records from the community put the death toll at 81, while about 70 were receiving treatment at the hospital.

He described it as faulty, erroneous and unpatriotic, insinuating by some groups that the attack was targeted at a particular religion, saying it was a dangerous speculation at a time the nation was at war.

The defence spokesman called on all Nigerians to support the military with useful information to carry out its operations without hitches. 

(NAN)