The Nigerian Army says Nigerians will not have a country to live in if the soldiers, who have recently come under intense public criticism over intermittent accidental airstrikes killing innocent citizens, are withdrawn from their locations of operation. Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, Christopher Musa, asserted.

The general stated this in an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday, insisting that Nigerians should be wary about their comments not to demoralise troops over the recent mistaken bombing of at least 126 civilians celebrating Maulud at Tundun Biri, in Igabi LGA in Kaduna.

Reminded that the outcry against the Tundun Biri bombing was aimed at forestalling reoccurrence, Mr Musa said, “We should not by our actions or utterances demoralise our troops.

“These guys stay awake so you can sleep. It is easier for you to say they made a mistake; they’re not doing well. If they pull out of these locations, what happens? We will not even have a country.”

The defence chief added, “We understand that generally everybody feels bad. We actually feel bad, also. Anytime we make mistakes, we take ownership and we feel extremely bad about it, especially when we lose our own troops in the war.

“We just want Nigerians to understand that the incident was never deliberate. We will never deliberately target our citizens. Our mandate is to protect innocent Nigerians, and we’ll continue to do that.

“It is unfortunate that out of the 99 per cent successes that we’ve had, this one that we had has given us a lot of negative responses. But we know Nigerians want success. We are succeeding.”

The Tundun Biri bombing by the Nigerian military was not the first “mistake” made by the army.

In 2014, the army bombarded Sambisa forest, killing three Chibok girls. In 2017, a Nigerian Air Force fighter jet killed over 100 civilians in Rann, Borno.

In 2019, at Tangaram, another “accidental” airstrike killed six children and wounded 17 people. In Sokatoku, the NAF warplane bombarded 17 people.

In 2021, another NAF fighter jet “mistakenly” bombed Nigerian soldiers.

Then, in Genu village, wedding guests were bombed by the air force.

Also, a military aircraft killed about 20 fishermen at Kwatar Daban Masara in the same year.

Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has ordered an investigation into the Tundun Biri “accidental” bombing.