The summary execution of the Boko Haram religious sect leader Malam Mohammed Yusuf and scores of his followers was necessary because excessive force had to be deployed by the authorities in order to quell a very dangerous situation, according to the Nigeria Police high command's report on the crisis, which is to be submitted to President Umaru Yar'adua shortly.

In the wake of the local and international outrage that followed the Boko Haram leaders' summary execution last July, the president had ordered his National Security Adviser Major General Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar and the police to submit a report to him within a week.

Police Force spokesman ACP Emmanuel Ojukwu told Daily Trust yesterday that the report demanded by the president will be submitted to him soon, but he declined to speak on the report's likely contents. The Force PRO also said the report would subsequently be made public.

However, a source told Daily Trust that the report will claim that excessive force had to be used by the police as "a last resort." The source said the report being compiled will "contain all the evidence of the options taken by the police to avert escalation of the violence as well as evidence that necessitated the use of excessive force to handle the sect violence." It will establish, according to the source, that the sect members killed scores of policemen and had the declared intention to taking over control of the Federal Government in order to further their ideological aims. The report will state that the police had to use maximum force in order to quell the dangerous uprising, Daily Trust learnt.

The police report is expected to explain to President Yar'adua that the Boko Haram sect members' precipitate attack on police stations in Bauchi, Potiskum and Maiduguri was the prelude to a general uprising meant to overthrow the Federal Government. Among other things to be included in the report, sources said, are the sect members' objectives, the weapons found in their possession, and their modus operandi. It will conclude that excessive force was required to check it.

The report will also outline the immediate and the remote causes of the crisis, the exact number of Boko Haram sect members killed by the joint military and police forces, as well as the number of civilians trapped and killed while the crisis lasted. It will also state the number of persons that sustained various degrees of injuries, the number of policemen and other security agents killed and injured, as well as those missing.

Police Inspector General of Police Ogbonaya Onovo recently shared N4.5 million to the families of 14 policemen killed in the violence in order to cushion their hardships. He said about 50 police families were displaced in the crisis while a handful of others were still missing. The news media however reported that hundreds of people were killed during the crisis, including scores of security agents while properties worth millions of naira were destroyed.

Meanwhile, Concerned Citizens of the North Eastern states of Nigeria residing in the United Kingdom yesterday asked President Umaru Musa Yar'adua to make public the Major General Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar report on the alleged extra judicial killings of Boko Haram sects by security forces.

Yar'adua had asked the National Security Adviser (NSA) to investigate the alleged extra judicial killings of the sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf, the alleged financier of the sect, Alhaji Buji Foi as well as Yusuf's father-in-law, Alhaji Baba Fugu. Also, the NSA was to investigate the conflict in its entirety and submit a report. But two months after the uprising, the report of the investigation is yet to be submitted to the president or made public.

The North Easterners resident in the United Kingdom, in a statement jointly signed by Dr Sani Aminu of Littleborough and Abba Mohammed Bashir Shuwa of Leeds, condemned the Boko Haram uprising as having "no place in the tenets of Islam which preaches peace, tolerance and piety." They however demanded the release of the report.

According to them, "We observed the efforts of the Nigerian security forces in containing the uprising with despatch and also we send our condolences to those security personnel that lost their lives while performing their duty and wish those who sustained injuries speedy recovery. As we put behind us the sordid and sad event of the recent past, we must be able to fully examine the causes of the recent violent religious skirmishes in the country with a view to forestalling future occurrences."