Nigeria’s Military Manual (1994) gives the following example of “perjury” (perfidy): “feigning civilian or non-combatant status”. 

Nigeria’s Manual on the Laws of War states that the “use of civilian clothing … by troops engaged in a battle” is a war crime. 

In the Nwaoga case before the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1972, the appellant and two officers of the rebel Biafran army disguised in civilian clothes went to a town under the control of federal troops and killed an unarmed person. The appellant was convicted for murder. The Court held that rebels must not feign civilian status while engaging in military operations and that, in these circumstances (operation in disguise, not in the rebel army uniform but in plain clothes, thus appearing to be members of the peaceful private population), the appellant was liable to punishment under the Criminal Code since the “deliberate and intentional killing of an unarmed person living peacefully inside the Federal territory … is a crime against humanity, and even if committed during a civil war is in violation of the domestic law of the country, and must be punished”.