"We can go out, we can smoke, people are happy, " he told BBC Focus on Africa but added that people were too scared to go out on the streets and openly celebrate.

BBC: Mali conflict: West African troops to arrive 'in days'

"There is no Nigerian soldier that goes out on the streets to just kill innocent Nigerians, " Col Sani Kukasheka Usman told the BBC at the First Division headquarters in Kaduna.

BBC: Nigerians' fear of northern atrocities