Over 100 civilians died on Saturday when military jets bombed a busy market in Jilli Futchimiram, Geidam Local Government Area, Yobe State, during an operation aimed at Boko Haram fighters. Witnesses said several aircraft struck while traders and residents went about their business, leaving scores dead and dozens wounded. Medical staff at Geidam General Hospital have admitted at least 35 critically injured victims and warned that the fatality figure could climb.
Former Senate President Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, who chairs the Senate Committee on Defence, demanded an independent probe on Monday, insisting that the scale of civilian loss required transparent answers. "The magnitude of this tragedy compels us to ask difficult but necessary questions," Lawan said, while praising the military's broader counter-insurgency effort. He urged the Federal Government and military authorities to fund urgent medical care for survivors and pay compensation to bereaved families, adding that the war on terror must not erode respect for innocent life.
Ahmad Lawan's call for an outside investigation is startling because the same National Assembly that oversees defence funding rarely challenges the security brass so publicly, signalling that the Geidam strike may be too catastrophic to bury under the usual rhetoric of collateral damage.
The northeast theatre has seen similar incidents before, yet commanders continue to authorise air raids over crowded markets and IDP camps, betting that political leaders will prioritise battlefield momentum over accountability. Lawan's statement shows that bet is becoming riskier as civilian deaths climb and mobile phone evidence reaches social media before the military finishes its press release.
For Geidam residents, the implication is stark: the federal force meant to protect them from Boko Haram is now their bigger existential threat, and the only recourse is an Abuja politician's promise of an inquiry whose findings may never reach Yobe State in any meaningful form. Until compensation cheques clear and strike protocols change, parents will think twice before sending children to trade grain on market day.
This incident fits a wider pattern of the air force treating the northeast as a free-fire zone where apologies substitute for precision, and it undercuts every counter-radicalisation narrative that asks civilians to trust the state instead of insurgents.
