…Rejects Military Inquiry Board, Seeks Independent Panel
…Okuama Community Being Annihilated By Soldiers
…Demands Probe Of Slain Soldiers’ Phone Conversations
…Says CDS Accounts Are Contradictory
…Demands Release Of Urhobo Traditional Ruler
An influential Niger Delta intellectual group, Urhobo Renaissance Society (URS) has called on President Bola Tinubu to call the military hierarchy and her personnel to order over their continued siege on Okuama and other bordering communities in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State over dastardly killing of 17 soldiers in the area.
URS also called President Tinubu to rescind his earlier presidential directive to the military to “do whatever they can to apprehend the killers of the military personnel”, saying such directive was being misjudged by the military to annihilate Okuama community and other neighbouring communities in search of the suspects.
It also demanded for the immediate release of the traditional ruler of Ewu Kingdom, His Royal Majesty Clement Oghenerukevwe Ikolo, who had been in detention of the Defence Headquarters over the killing of the soldiers.
The group, while condemning and describing as unjustifiable gruesome murder of the of the military personnel, commiserated with the family of the slain soldiers, and demanded for an independent judicial panel of inquiry into the Okuama tragedy.
Recall that unknown gunmen had on 14th March, 2024, ambushed and murdered 17 military personnel including the commanding officer of the 181 Amphibious Battalion Bomadi, two majors and a captain while on a peace mission to Okuama community.
NIGER DELTA TODAY Online reports that since the incident, soldiers had laid siege to Okuama, a community in Ewu Kingdom of Ughelli South LGA, while many residents were alleged missing and others taking cover in neighbouring forest.
Reports also alleged that the military had leveled the community with only the church and school building remaining standing in the community. The traditional ruler of Ewu Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Clement Ikolo, Urhukpe 1, who turned himself in after being declared wanted had been kept incommunicado by the military hierarchy.
But reacting to the development on Thursday in a statement signed by the Secretary of Urhobo Renaissance Society (URS), Dr. John Uwa, described the continued detention of the traditional ruler by the military as a desecration of Urhobo traditions and the Nigerian constitution.
URS Condemns Killing Of Soldiers
The dastardly murder of seventeen officers and men of the Nigerian Army on the 14th of March 2024 was a condemnable act which riled all people of good will and conscience. The peace loving Urhobo people also condemned the barbaric act in the harshest of words. So far, the military has pointed accusing fingers at the people of Okuama as the culprits since the mutilated bodies of the soldiers were found floating on the Forcados River which run by Okuama. We dare say that this is an allegation which has not been proven by any investigative panel. While the Urhobo people commiserate with the families of the slain soldiers and offer her condolences to the Federal Government of Nigeria for which the military serves as a symbol of power, we cannot continue to be silent in the face of the deliberate act to wipe Okuama off the face of the earth as embarked upon by the Nigerian Army.
The Urhobo people, after expressing their shock and condoling with the families of the murdered soldiers, the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian state, have again and again insisted on the innocence of the Okuama people of less than eight hundred living on a poor and isolated land. We have insisted that the kind of fire power that will eliminate that number of soldiers was lacking among the agrarian Okuama people. We have also insisted that the Urhobo people’s unalloyed loyalty to the Federal Government has made them to show an uncommon respect bordering on veneration to the military and never in the history of the Urhobo people have they hurt a soldier or taken up arms against the Nigerian state.
What is happening at Okuama is a tragic instance of scapegoating intended to destroy an entire community by a military that abandoned the rules of engagement with citizens as enshrined in global best practices. The military has turned its arsenal against the citizens it should be protecting. Okuama has become victim of state violence.
Chief Defence Staff’ Contradictory Accounts
The premise that the people of Okuama are victims of state malevolence is now glaring to all with the conflicting utterances coming from the peak of the military high command. The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has offered four different narratives on the Okuama incident. His first thread was that the soldiers were killed by youths of Okuama. The next line was that the military knows the killers of the soldiers and that they were closing in on them and he went on to mention one Amagbein from Igbomotoru in Bayelsa State. In another narrative he ascribed the killings to oil bunkering. His latest storyline is that Okuama people hired mercenaries to kill the soldiers. In one of his media outings, General Musa said Lt. Col. A. H. Ali the slain commander alone could have leveled all of Okuama if he had been armed. The same General Musa forgot that he had told the world that the killers of the soldiers made away with their arms which the military is now looking for in Okuama. Are these conflicting stories from just one man about one incident not enough pointers that the military should look elsewhere for the killers of the soldiers?
…Warns Against Annihilating Okuama Community
As we write the military has leveled Okuama and authoritative media reports indicate that a church and a school are the only two buildings standing and reminding the world about a place that once was. The number of Okuama lives wasted by Nigerian soldiers since the 14th March incident is unspecified, but they are many. The entire Urhobo nation is mourning the annihilation of Okuama. The few surviving people now live in forests cohabiting with wild animals and reptiles. The military has blocked all access to Okuama and those trapped in the forest are dying of starvation. Besides Okuama, the military has also attacked nearby Urhobo communities in search of suspected innocent people.
…Demands Release Of Urhobo Traditional Ruler
What became more disturbing was the declaration of eight citizens including a royal father and a professor as wanted persons. And the world wondered how legitimate is it for the military to declare citizens who are not its personnel wanted. The royal father who is the King of Ewu Kingdom of which Okuama is a constituent community has been held incommunicado by the military. This is a desecration of tradition and a gross violation of the Nigerian constitution.
…URS Urges President Tinubu To Rescind Presidential Directive To Military
Unfortunately, the Chief of Defence Staff is holding onto the presidential directive, for the military to fish out the killers, to commit genocide in Okuama; even without cognizance of its discretionary power in a civilian environment. And with the evidence adduced to the Okuama incident in the media, we expect the initial hasty presidential response to have been rescinded; so as to prevent the Nigeria military, the largest force in Africa, from its further destruction of an infinitesimal settlement like Okuama. We use the medium to call for the immediate release of the King of Ewu kingdom in line with his fundamental human right.
…President Tinubu Should Constitute Independent Panel
The military has set up a panel of inquiry which is an attempt at covering up. The military cannot be a fair judge in its own case. Whatever that panel is doing should be confined to military and not public records. What the Federal Government should do is to set up an independent commission of inquiry to unravel what actually happened. Only then can we get to the bottom of the matter and get justice. Therefore, let us state very clearly that the Urhobo Nation will have no trust, or take part, in a panel of inquiry in which the Nigerian Army is both the judge, the prosecutor, the adjudicator and the executioner.
The Okuama incident should not be seen an isolated misfortune and ascribed to a land dispute between two communities. In the fullness of time, its real instigation by resource theft in which the military is actively involved will be revealed. The military needs to give reorientation to its men in order for them to focus on real soldierly duties and being truly faithful to the nation. The military in the Niger Delta has a subterranean allegiance to resource theft in collusion with oil thieves. What an independent investigation can also do is to get mobile network providers to evaluate the conversations in the phones of the slain soldiers to know what went on in the days leading to their death.
Those who reduced Okuama to rubbles and murdered her people should remember the story of Odi and Zaki Biam. The General who ordered the bombardment of Odi was still alive when another General leveled his home town of Zaki Biam.
For now, we call on the Federal Government to call the military to order and let Okuama be rebuilt. Okuama lives matter.
