Okuama: One year after the killings

IT will be one year today, March 14, since the unfortunate killing of 17 soldiers, including four officers, at a location along the Forcados River in Delta State. While the point about the actual killers of the servicemen remains hanging, the Army, in the aftermath, pinned the killing down to persons in Okuama, a fishing community in Ughelli South local government area of Delta State. The army explained that the 17 soldiers were on a mission to settle a land dispute between Okuama, an Urhobo community and the neighbouring Ijaw community of Okoloba but that all 17 men were killed in cold blood on that fateful day by persons from the former. This sparked off a chain of catastrophic events, the end of which is still not in sight 365 days after.

The army’s claim of a peace mission that went awry did not sound too probable across board. Doubts were raised. In the first place, soldiers are not created to make peace. They are created to fight wars, especially wars to repel external aggression and protect the national territorial boundaries. Even at that, soldiers do not go about fighting their own wars. They fight the wars created for them by politicians. But when the time comes to discuss or make peace, soldiers are kept far from the discussions. Politicians sit alone at the table to hammer out the terms of peace. That is how it is happening currently in Ukraine/Russia and Gaza/Israel. Soldiers will only be invited by politicians if need be, to enforce the terms of the negotiated peace deal.

Put differently, peace mission is not the same as peace keeping mission. One is a civil engagement and happens before the other which is a military assignment with an underlying kinetic approach. While nothing should justify the killing of Nigerian soldiers by Nigerians, the 17 men and officers of the Army, killed on March 14 last year, were not on a peace keeping mis-sion. By the Army’s own claim, they were on a mission to discuss peace or peace-making mission. Peace is made before it is kept or enforced by deterrence which soldiers can do.

Let’s bring into context. Even though they are neighbouring communities, Okuama and Okoloba are in different local government areas of Delta State. The former is in Ughelli South Local Government Area and the later in Bomadi Local Government Area. But neither of the leaderships in the two council areas was involved or even aware of the Army’s mission to make peace in the area. Also, the police formations in the jurisdiction, namely the divisions in Bomadi and Otor-Jeremi, as well as the Area office in Ughelli, were not accommodated in the scheme. The Department of State Service (DSS), that is, the Nigerian secret police was in the dark of the peace mission. Even the Delta State Government with all the human and institutional structures for such civic engagements, never knew that the 181 Amphibious Battalion in Bomadi, in a unique show of its capabilities, was moving officers and men across water for the settlement of a land dispute in Okuoma. To say the least, the army acted alone when it was most necessary and even mandatory to act in concert with civil authorities.

Chief of Defence Staff, General Chris Musa added a dimension that should ordinarily refract the narrative and remove the heat from Okuama. But that did not quite happen. He explained that a certain Amagben from Igbomoturu, a Community in Southern ljaw local government area in neighbour-ing Bayelsa State was behind the death of the 17 service men.

This however, came after the army had rolled over Okuama and reduced the once bubbling community to rubbles, leaving nothing standing except the Anglican Church. All the same, the lead offered by the Chief of Staff was followed by soldiers on ground and water to extend the unmitigated pain to Igbo-moturu. When the smoke cleared, the authorities in Yenagoa quantified the loss as 20 deaths and many destroyed houses.

As a matter of fact, the facts of the Okuama tragic story are not too complex. They are fairly straight forward and understood by quarters that should understand them. And here is a recap.

There was a very heinous crime of the killing of 17 men and officers of the Nigerian Army on March 14, 2024 by yet to be established killers. The army however alleges that the crime was committed by persons from Okuama and in a reprisal on March 15, 2024, destroyed the community and rendered the people homeless. The army became army of occupation and stayed put in Okuama for about 40 days before they retreated following interventions from high quarters

Instead, what have appeared really complex, are the procedures of the case. The crime remains murder as defined in the provisions of Chapter 27 of the Criminal Code. The procedures for the determination and punishment for murder are all contained in the Criminal Code. The summary is that murder, as in all crimes, is between the Nigerian State and the defendant.

Crime, technically, is committed against the state and not against individuals or institutions. At the very best, person or institution against whom the crime is committed or who bears directly the consequences of the criminal act or omission would only be invited by the prosecution as a witness. It is the police and the attorney-general that prosecute criminals.

There is no private crime anywhere in the criminal justice system in Nigeria and in fact elsewhere in the whole wide world.

It means, effectively, that the military authorities have been seeking justice outside the law. This kind of thing is called ‘self help’ in law. It does not enrich the jurisprudence of any juris-diction. It diminishes it. It should be known also that if the military is not dealing with its own matter, among its own people and according to its own rule, it has no authority whatsoever under a democracy to declare any citizen wanted. In the Okua-ma matter, the Army has acted as if it is a republic within the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It has declared perceived criminals wanted without a police report of investigation. It has investigated without making public the report of the investigation. It has arrested and detained without recourse to the court.

Not only that, the Army refused blatantly to honour an invitation to appear before the House of Reps ad-hoc Committee that looked into the Okuoma matter. The soldiers were just bent on doing things their own way. They felt and still feel that the gravity of the crime and their grievances are enough justification for their serial procedural breaches. No civilised system runs that way. The difference between murder and assassination is in the profile of the target. Thus, even the assassination (instead of murder) of a sitting president will still be determined within the relevant provisions of the Criminal and Penal Codes. No other law applies under a democracy. I am saying therefore that after one full year, the time has come for the army to backtrack and follow laid-down procedures to close the Okuama matter for good.

In the wake of the military offensive in Okuama, persons suspected by the Army to be connected with the killing of the 17 soldiers, were declared wanted by it. These included the king of Ewu-Urhobo Kingdom, HRM, Clement Ikolo. Okuama is one of the satellite towns of Ewu-Urhobo kingdom and the specific charge against King Ikolo, I guess, is allowing Okuama to be part of his kingdom. How is that his fault? The king, who didn’t want to look like a fugitive from the law, had voluntarily surrendered himself to an army formation in Asaba, Delta State. He was to remain in military custody without an enabling court order for 22 days. Others on the wanted list were Akevwru Daniel Omotegboro who is same as Amagben, Prof Arthur Ekpekpo, Andaowei Denis Bakiri, Igoli Ebi (the only female amongst them), Sinclair Oliki and Reuben Baru.

It would be interesting to say a thing or two about Prof. Arthur Ekpekpo. He teaches physics at the Delta State University, Abraka. He is the former Dean of the Faculty of Science of the university. By the known social and material dialectics, Prof Ekpekpo appears cast at a social station that removes him far from the maddening crowd. But he was spat at by the spitting cobra that bit the toe of King Ikolo. He happens to be holding the right community office at the wrong time. He is the President-general of Ewu-Urhobo Kingdom and also an indigene of Okuama. Both are non extenuating facts in the understanding of the Army. The Prof is complicit and stands guilty until he is allowed some space by the military to prove his innocence or reinforce his culpability either in a court-martial or a conventional court as the case maybe.

The army, which alone, knows the murderers it is looking for, plucked out Prof from hiding in August last year. It expanded the list of wanted persons to include more persons from Okua-ma. They are Chief Belvis Adogbo, Denis Okugbaye, Denis Amalaka, James Oghoroko and Mabel Owhemu, all of whom were taken at different locations between August 17 and 20 last year. Two of these persons are no longer in army custody.

One, James Oghoroko had a permanent reprieve when he died in custody in December last year. He was the President-general of Okuama community. Death was allegedly knocking for Denis Okugbaye when he was released on compassionate grounds last December to Senator Ede Dafinone who represents Delta Central in the Senate. The rest are still where they are – Bori Camp in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

More worrisome is the impression of institutional helplessness in a democracy. The police cannot assert itself against the military and say clearly that investigation and prosecution of crime is not a military task. The House of Reps did not issue warrant of arrest of the Army Chief when the Army refused to appear before the House committee on the Okuama matter.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) who likes to see treason in everything did not see treason when armed soldiers stopped a sitting Governor from accessing a part of the state he gov-erns. He has also not shouted treason over serial procedural breaches of the military or act to compel the Army to stay within bounds in the Okuama matter.

About three suits bordering on the enforcement of fundamental human rights are lying in court against the Army. These are ordinarily matters of urgent attention, but till date, nothing definite, outside announcement of postponements, has been pronounced by the court to compel the military to act appro-priately. Some of these processes were filed since April last year. Last Tuesday, the Member representing Ughelli North, Ughelli South and Udu Federal Constituency in the House of Reps, Hon. Francis Waive moved a motion for the House to urge the Nigerian Army to: 1. release the report of its investigation into the Okuama matter; 2. release the detained innocent members of the community or charge them to court;

3. rebuild the homes destroyed by its men in the wake of the incident and 4. mandate the House Committee on Defence to ensure compliance and report to the House within four weeks. The motion was unanimously passed.

All said, my appeal is for the military not to be consumed by rage. It should seize this parliamentary window created by the representative of the people of Okuama to backtrack into hon-our. Whatever is the magnitude of the injury, yielding to democratic processes in seeking redress strengthens the institution of the military more than it weakens. We are in an age of informa-tion. Others are watching us. The current posture of the Army concerning the Okuama matter is bad public relations for the country. The Commander-in-Chief should be interested.

Thanks should go the Delta State Government that stepped in with an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp to coordinate relief efforts to help the unfortunate victims of the Okuama crisis. The camp which operated for seven months, between May 2 and December 31, 2024 achieved the short-term purpose of supporting the displaced people of Okuama to recover from the trauma of the military invasion and reposition for normal life. The long term agenda of returning the community to baseline conditions calls for the participation of all stakeholders including the Federal Government, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), national and international donor agencies, good spirited individuals and the Delta State government.