Senator Joel-Onowakpo calls for calm, condemns killing of soldiers in Delta

The Senator representing Delta South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, has condemned the gruesome murder of 16 soldiers in Okuama Community, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

Senator Joel-Onowakpo, while reacting to the needless deaths of Nigerian soldiers who were on a peace mission in a statement signed by him, said it was a crisis taken too far.

The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, thereby commiserated with the military and the immediate families of the slain soldiers

While calling for a holistic investigation into the remote causes of the crisis that led to the unwarranted killing of innocent soldiers, he emphasised the need for the security agencies to go after the masterminds of the heinous crime.

Senator Joel-Onowakpo, who also sympathised with the families of those who may have lost their loved ones as a result of the crisis, sued for the immediate intervention of both the state and federal governments to avoid further escalation of the crisis.

He stressed the need for the military to tactically deploy intelligence in the pursuit of the masterminds to avoid killing innocent children and women in the Okuama community who may not know those behind the dastardly act.

He, however, advised the people of the Okuama community to join forces with the military to fish out the killers of the 16 gallant soldiers.

It will be recalled that there has been a land dispute between Okuama Community, Ughelli South Local Government Area, and Okoloba Community in Bomadi Local Government Area, both of Delta State.

The soldiers were believed to be on a peace mission in the community as a result of rising tensions from the age-long land dispute before they were ambushed and murdered.

ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• Delta community razed following killing of 16 soldiers

• OFFCUT: Salary alone not solution to economic hardship, Nigerians lament

• Army recovers 14 mutilated corpses of military personnel in Delta

• Abdul Ningi and the “Apapin” fraternity

• Insecurity: Fulani leaders threaten to stop sales of livestocks across Nigeria

• Olubadan designate coronation may commence after 21-day mourning period