The Acting National Leader of the Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing, Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the socio-political issues that recently set the Okuama Community in Delta State against its rival community culminating in the March 14 gruesome killing of an Army officer and 16 soldiers.
WHAT is your take on the recent bloodbath in the Okuama community in Delta State, where suspected persons murdered officer and soldiers of the 181 Amphibious Battalion during a peacekeeping mission?
It is an unfortunate development and I do not want to go into the deep politics of the matter. I sincerely believe that our soldiers are gallant as they fight for our protection. So, for no reason should they be killed by anyone. Also, the military authorities need to be very careful in deploying soldiers, especially where there is an internal strife like the one that happened in Okuama. It is shameful and regrettable that our soldiers have to die like that. It doesn’t speak good of our military, and our country. I do hope our military officers will be very professional by observing established ethics in their bid to apprehend those behind the killings.
While many people have strongly condemned the incident, some human rights activists and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, have questioned the legality of the steps so far taken by the Defence headquarters, especially as regards the detention and prosecution of the civilian suspects arrested by the military in connection with the massacre. The activists have argued that it is a constitutional aberration for soldiers to intervene in communal clashes, let alone try to settle them. What is your reaction to this?
That was why I initially mentioned the in-politics of the action. You know as Africans, whenever there is an incident of death, we are often careful to avoid condemning the dead. But the truth remains that the military authorities need to observe the ethics of their profession. I do not know why the military decided to deploy soldiers to such an environment, where there is just a communal clash. I do not know why the military did not refer those who contacted them to the police, which should handle such matters, including even the Department of State Security (DSS). There have been a lot of stories coming out of Okuama, from the people who reside there and even the indigenes. The locals said that on several occasions whenever such a crisis broke out, bandits in military uniform were used to attack them, so they mistook the military officers, who came for the peacekeeping operation as some bandits or thugs terrorising the community in military uniform.
It has been severally observed by different commentators that it is not the duty of the military to intervene in such matters, and I believe that if the military had been more professional in handling the situation by either referring the matter to the police or carrying out due diligence and adequate intelligence gathering to get the right information about what was happening between the warring communities, those gallant military officers would still be alive today in their different places of assignment working for the country. So it is unfortunate that it happened, though this is not to condone the incident or make flimsy excuses for the killers, because for no reason should people be killed unjustly. But above all, I think the police, the DSS, and any other agency, whose job it is to handle such matters, should work more on preventive measures by trying to find out what exactly happened or is happening within the warring communities. It shouldn’t end with arresting some people and pointing accusing fingers as the military has done in its reprisal missions to the communities. We should rather focus on ensuring that such incidents do not repeat themselves, because if they do not get to the root of the matter, there will be a repetition. It is just like when something happened and only an arrest was made without finding out the deep-seated cause of the incident, it will keep repeating itself. So, beyond the fault-finding and arresting so far carried out, it is important that the authorities deploy intelligence to get to the root of the matter and find all ways possible to resolve the causative issues. And individuals in the two communities involved in the crisis, who are seen to be strongly fuelling it should not be spared, no matter how highly connected they are. In the communities, some people may be seen as being above the law as they carry out some dastardly criminal acts and are still left untouched. We heard that some of them have even been boasting that nothing will happen to them, no matter what the military does. I think the law should take its course on those people so that there will be calm and peace in the communities. But peace can only be achieved when there is justice.
The Federal Government has directed the military to ensure that none of the culprits ever go unpunished. According to reports, the directive has given rise to reprisal missions from the military to the communities, reportedly forcing the residents to flee their homes and take cover in the bush. Don’t you think such a move will be counterproductive and is it even the next line of action to take in the aftermath of such bloody communal clashes?
The president, who is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces has a responsibility to show that he cares about the welfare and security of the military and our servicemen. But given our circumstances and history as a country where we have had incidents of the military going on reprisal attacks without caution, it would have been necessary for the federal government to be more restrained in making certain statements so that it doesn’t give the military the impetus and some kinds of immunity to go ahead and slaughter innocent people. What they should invest more in this time around is peace-keeping surveillance and investigation to ensure that it is only those who are truly guilty of being involved in the killing that will be arrested and punished. We know that in this country, many times, people who commit this kind of crime do not end up paying for it. Rather, it is the innocent people that often get penalised or fall victim, which they call collateral damage in the military. The innocent become victims of such reprisals and unlawful arrests as a result of the military seeking to punish people for the death of their comrades.
We know and we have read a lot about what is happening in those two communities. So beyond asking the military to get to the root of the matter and arrest the killers, the federal government should a commission of inquiry to permanently resolve the crisis about the boundary dispute and make sure these two communities live in peace. We are not saying that those who have died should die for nothing, but some civilians died in the attacks based on what we learned and read. Mind you, the life of a military man is not worth more than the life of any other Nigerian, so those residents of the communities, who have also died in the mayhem, should also get justice. Those who killed them should also be apprehended and brought to justice, because when this is not done, the incident will keep recurring and people will be angry, which may be catastrophic at the end of the day.
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