By Lateef Adegbite
When Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President and Commander In-Chief , C-In-C, of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, decl that ared he has granted’’ full Authority to Christopher Musa, an Army General and Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, to go after the criminal elements who had killed the four Army Officers and 14 other soldiers including one AH an Army Lt. Col Ali stonel, who incidentally was the Commanding Officer, 6 Division, of the Nigerian Army , PortHarcourt, Capital of Rivers state , deployed at Okuama, Ugheli South Local government Area, on Thursday, March 14, 2024, , many knew that the Community is in trouble.
Troops of the 181 Amphibious battalion, Bomadi and 63 Brigade Asaba, the Delta state Capital,may not have read the handwriting on the wall that there was danger ahead as the Okuama Community Youths who were heavily armed were prepared for them. They were said to have laid an ambush for them on the Creeks ostensibly to engage them in a shootout on the high sea. They had their way.
Unknown to them, it was an invitation for trouble for the Okuama Community and other Communities around Bomadi and Ughelli Local government Areas of the state.The soldiers may have drawn their experience from the Odi Community, military invasion in Bayelsa, home state of former President Goodluck Jonathan, on November 4 , 1999 and Zaki Ibiam in Benue state in 2001 during former President Olusegun Obsanjo’s Administration.
At the instance of Taoreed Lagbaja, an Army Lt. General and Chief of Army Staff, CoAs, who may have on the instructions of the CDS, in accordance with the Presidential directive to bring the Okuama Community Youths who had killed the soldiers to book to face the full weight of the Law had given the nod to the I81 Batallion, Bomadi, which had taken delivery of some military Launchers, armoured tankers hurrying to the creeks to move into the Delta state Community to fish out the culprits.
The entire Communities in Bomadi and Ughelli South Local government Areas of Delta state was said to have been cordoned off by operatives of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Capital of Rivers state , which oversees the 63 Brigade in Asaba, the Delta Capital to ensure that none of the suspects escapes.
T he officers of the 6 Division, Port Harcourt and 63 Brigade Asaba , may have be encouraged to take bold decision, to raze the Okuama Community because of what they saw on ground, at the NDDC Jetty, where the bodies of Lt.Col. AH Ali, the Commanding Officer of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army , Port Harcourt ad two other killed Army Majors were found floating by the river bank as other victims were found separated on the Land .
More pathetic was the discovery of the selfless body of DE Obi, an Army Major and another victim who was said to have been found floating on river Forcadoes, near Ayakoromo Community while the third unidentified victim who was found in the same location was said to be blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back.
Given an eyewitness account of the Okuama incident, Cecil Esekhaigbe, a rtd, Army Maj. Gen. confirmed that noting that ‘’ if the soldiers who had gone to the Okuama Community to maintain peace between the warring Communities were fully prepared for the battle ahead , not one of them would have been killed’’ as the casualty would have been more on the Okuama Community. He had said that ‘’the soldiers had responded to a distress call after a communal clash between Okuama and Okoloba Communities , both in Delta state to meet such unprovoked attacks.
The retired Army Maj. Gen. who had appeared on Channel Television, the Morning Brief Break Fast show on Monday, March 18, 2024, had said that contrary to reports making the rounds that the soldiers were in the coastal community with an intention to fight in order to find out why their colleagues who were on a peace – keeping operation to the Okuama village were taken hostage, describing as untrue.
The aggrieved soldiers may not have entered the Okuama Community with the intention to fight but to fish out the culprits who had killed the 16 soldiers on a peace mission in the Community but what they saw on ground may have shocked them to change their plan of action: turn the Community to another Zaki Ibiam and Odi Communities as whey went on a demolition- free exercise.
The troops of 181 Battalion, 6 Division and 63 Brigade who were said to have taken the battle to the Okuama Community were may have sent a message to Youths of other Communities in Delta state and other states in the south-south geopolitical region of what will happen to them if they dare kill any soldier sent to their Community on a peace mission.
In spite of the fact that officers of the 181 Amphibious Battalion Bomadi,, 63 Brigade , Asaba, and 6 Division, Port Harcourt of the Nigerian who had invaded the Okuama Community in a reprisal attack, over the killing of the four Army officers and killing of 14 other soldiers, the Okuama Community, have continued to receive wide condemnations from Nigerians including heriff Oborevwori, the Delta state governor, who has been barred from accessing the Okuama Community.
Atiku Abubakar, a former Nigerian Vice President during Obasanjo’s Administration and President Candidate of the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the February 25, 2023, elections and Peter Obi , a- one governor of Anambra state and Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, during the Presidential election, had condemned the killing of the four senior Army officers and 14 other Nigerian soldiers by armed Youths of Okuama Community , insisting that ‘’those involved in the attacks must be brought to justice as a deterrence to other Youths in the future’’.
The duo had said that the Okuama Community Youths have no basis to ambush and kill the soldiers who were on active duties of securing and keeping peace within the two warring Delta state Communities, describing it as’’ barbaric and totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated by any well-meaning Nigerian and any sane society’’.
Obi, the former Anambra state governor, was said to have tweeted further in his official X –handle, that ‘’for a nation already combatting a high level of insecurity, ‘’ the killing of 16 soldiers who had put their lives on the line for the country will be too much of a burden to bear’’.
Senator Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom led upper chamber of the National Assembly, which had condemned the gruesome murder of the 16 Army Officers attached to the ‘’Operation Delta Safe, OPDS, ‘’ in Okuama Community had said that the culprits must be made to face the full consequences of their actions’’.
Senator Abdulaziz Yara’dua, Chairman, Northern Governors’ Forum, NGF, who could not hide his feelings had said that the sacrifice that had been made by the 16 soldiers of the OPDS, during the distress incident call forever would be remembered in the annals of Nigerian history.
The Senate Committee on the Nigerian Army has vowed to throw its weight in supporting necessary investigations and legal processes to ensure that those responsible for this dastardly act face he full weight of the Law.
Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta, was said to have also condemned in strong terms, the unprovoked killing of the 16 soldiers attached to the 63 Brigade at Okuama Community in Ughelli south Local government Area of Delta state.
The governor, who was apparently disturbed by the violence and unprovoked killing of the officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army had described it as ‘’alien culture of Deltans’’, noting that it is contrary to the values and path of peace that the state government is promoting to enhance security in the state’’.
He may have gladdened the heart of the officers and officers of 63 Brigade when he promised that ‘’the state government shall take all measures necessary to fish out all those behind this dastardly act and ensure they are made to ace the full weight of the Law’’. He noted that a state governed by the Rule of Law, and human decency,’’ acts such as the killing of 16 soldiers unprovoked will not be tolerated’’.
Meanwhile, Gen. Musa, the CDS,has ordered a probe into the tragic killing of the four officers and 12 soldiers attached to the 63 Brigade to get to the root of the matter. The probe is coming on the heels of the arrests that have been made of those allegedly involved in the crime as the security agencies intensify efforts to unravel the motive behind the attack on the soldiers.
