THE Department of State Services (DSS) recently issued a statement that it had neutralised seven bandits after raiding one of their camps at Awo-Omamma in Imo State.
But the announcement by the security agency was made more or less as a counter-narrative to that of the youths of the area who claimed that the DSS killed 14 of their colleagues while they were returning from a traditional wedding ceremony. In other words, while the DSS asserted that it killed terrorists, the people insisted that the security agency murdered innocent citizens. Since then, the youths in the area have become restive. On the surface, it is difficult to know the account or version to take as the authentic one.
And the reason is that while Awo-Omamma is notorious for harbouring many elements of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)/Eastern Security Network (ESN), the DSS’s announcement of the killing of the supposed terrorists in the area came rather late, smacked of an afterthought, and raised suspicion of foul play.
There are quite a few questions that any dispassionate observer would ask, viz: if terrorists were eliminated, why did the DSS keep quiet, only to come out with its own narrative when public outcry became intense?
Was there an encounter with the DSS? And even at that, suspects are expected to be arrested and taken to court for trial. Why were the alleged bandits summarily executed, as it were? Were the killings in self-defence or were they an outright act of elimination? Was it just the 14 youths that were present during the encounter? Did the DSS make any arrest? The government should launch a painstaking inquiry into this incident and come up with answers to these questions.
The people are insisting and complaining that the dead were summarily murdered by security personnel for no just cause, as they were participants at a traditional wedding ceremony, while the DSS has stuck to its own account of the incident that those killed were bandits whom it neutralised in the course of a legitimate security raid. These claims and counterclaims should be thoroughly investigated in order to have a sense of clarity about the true circumstances of the killings and what led to them.
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If indeed those killed were hoodlums, then the DSS has needlessly drawn the flak coming its way from some members of the public. This is because it was evidently tardy and lethargic, sleeping on the killings until it was confronted by public demonstration based on a different narrative.
If it had routinely made a release of the outcome of its security raid which led to the death of 14 persons, perhaps the public would have had the benefit of its position before the one about premeditated killings took root. For instance, one Chinonso Mmerem, an ESN member who was reportedly arrested by the DSS a week earlier, was paraded by the security outfit as the decoy that took its personnel to one of the camps of the bandits where some alleged members of the outlawed group were neutralised.
But it did that only when the public outrage against the killings became strident. To be sure, it is not being suggested that security agencies should make public their strategies for combating crime, but nothing stops them from disclosing the outcome of their implementation, especially if it is successful.
Now, it has become imperative that the government goes beyond the DSS’s narrative to investigate the killings and bring out more evidence so as to convince the public about what really transpired. Without a doubt, the level of insecurity in the country is appallingly high and security agencies have a duty to double down on their activities to rein it in, but that should not in any way detract from the need by security personnel to exhibit professionalism in the course of executing their mandate.
It is grossly unprofessional of security agents to liquidate innocent citizens because they were mistaken for criminals, and it is cruel and criminal if the ‘mistake’ was deliberate. And if it was a genuine case of mistaken identity, the honourable thing to do is to take ownership and apologise.
The government has a duty to intervene at the highest level to ensure the unravelling of the mystery surrounding the Awo-Omamma killings and make its findings public in order to clear all doubts. It should not be the case that killings would occur and the public would be left in doubt about how they occurred and whether they were justifiable. That does not bode well for the image of the country locally and internationally.
and then