The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, has visited Kaduna State, two days after a deadly military air strike that killed at least 85 people and injured several others.
The army chief’s move is also for an on-the-spot assessment of the community and to condole with the families of the victims.
Sunday’s incident is one of the country’s deadliest military bombing accidents.
Earlier, the army acknowledged one of its drones aimed at armed groups had accidentally struck the Tudun Biri village as residents were celebrating a Muslim festival. Though the army did not give any casualty figures, residents had said 85 people, many of them women and children, had been killed.
It also said its drone was on a routine mission that “inadvertently affected members of the community”.
Already, President Bola Tinubu and Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani have ordered a thorough investigation into the tragic incident.
Tinubu who described the incident as “very unfortunate, disturbing, and painful, expressing indignation and grief over the tragic loss of Nigerian lives,” called for “calm while the authorities look diligently into the mishap”.
Presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said his principal expressed “indignation and grief over the tragic loss of Nigerian lives”.
Tinubu also directed swift and comprehensive medical attention to surviving victims while praying for the repose of the souls of the deceased.
Nigeria’s armed forces often rely on air strikes in their battle against so-called bandit militias in the northwest and northeast of the country, where jihadists have been fighting for more than a decade.
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