Politics
Killing of soldiers: N/Delta communities under military invasion
…as humanitarian crisis looms
Two weeks after the March 14 brutal killing of 17 soldiers, including senior military officers on a “peace mission” to Okuama, a community along the Forcados River in Ughelli South local government area of Delta State, the community remains cordoned off by fierce looking soldiers, with even the state governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, unable to gain access last week. And news filtering in suggests that much of the community has been raised and scores killed in an operation many say brings back memories of Odii massacre.
Disturbed by the development, leaders of the region, on Sunday, urged the Federal Government to direct the Army to withdraw its siege to Okuama and other communities in Delta and Bayelsa states.
Those who spoke include the traditional ruler of Kabowei Kingdom in Delta State, HRM (Barr) Shadrach Peremobowei Erebulu, Aduo III; Wing Commander Patrick Biakpara, retd; Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bomadi, Most Rev. Hyacinth Oroko Egbebo, and environmentalist, Comrade Alagoa Morris, among others.
The fallen soldiers, serving with the 181 Amphibious Battalion, were on a peace mission to quell a long standing community clashes over land between Okuama, an Urhobo community of the Ewu-urphie clan, and Okoloba, an Ijaw community, in Bomadi Local Government of Delta State when the incident occurred.
Among those killed in the incident were, Maj SD Shafa (N/13976), Maj DE Obi (N/14395), Capt U Zakari (N/16348), SSgt Yahaya Saidu (#3NA/36/2974), Cpl Yahaya Danbaba (1ONA/65/7274), Col Kabiru Bashir (11NA/66/9853), LCol Bulus Haruna (16NA/TS/5844) and Lal Sole Opeyemi (17NA/760719)
Others are LCpl Bello Anas (17NA/76/290), LCpl Hamman Peter (NA/T82653), LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi (18NA/77/1191), Pte Alhaji Isah (17NA/76/6079), Pte Clement Francis (19NA/78/0911), Pte Abubakar Ali (19NA/78/2162), Pte Ibrahim Adamu (19NA/78/6079) and Pte Adamu Ibrahim (21NA/80/4795).
Many had wondered why such top military brass would be involved in a clash between two communities, but Ughelli South and the surrounding areas happen to be oil rich, indeed it’s been described as the headquarters of oil production in Delta State, and the heavy military involvement had been in the context of the overall effort to maintain peace in the interest of oil production, amid prevailing oil bunkering in the area, which involves militant warlords.
“I know the CO (Commanding Officer) himself, Lt. Col. Ali, because of recently, we emphasized that we want oil production in Nigerian to increase so that we’d be able to have enough foreign exchange because of the challenges we’re facing,” the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Chris Musa told a senate hearing last week.
“He had insisted that all the illegal activities going on in that area must stop. He directed his troops and they were stopping illegal bunkering because these are the people benefiting from it. So, when this issue (communal crisis) came up, it became an opportunity for them to also intervene and do away with it, and that’s how they got involved. We know who did it, we’re following up on him, and we’re sure it’s just a matter of time. We’re going to get him and we must get those arms back.”
How soldiers were killed
Prior to the March 14 killing of the soldiers, on March 13, a young man from Okoloba, identified as Anthony Aboh, was said to have been taken hostage allegedly by armed youths in Okuama community. Aboh was later found dead.
His brother, a former supervisory councilor in Bomadi local government council, reported the matter to the 181 Amphibious Battalion of the military Joint Task Force, Bomadi.
Following the report, the commander mobilized his men on a rescue mission to Okuama. The former councilor was also asked to join them on the mission.
Reports said that when the military team arrived at Okuama, they met with the community chairman at the community hall were deliberations were held, after which the commander insisted the community chairman and other leaders must go with them to Bomadi.
Vanguard in a report quoted a survivor, who was one of the drivers of the speedboats hired by the military at the Gbaregolor community waterside, to have narrated that the community chairman refused to go with the soldiers, who then forced him towards the waterfront to board their boat before rains of bullets started coming from all directions.
”Not long after this scenario, the commander and his men started coming to the shore with the community chairman. At that moment, I made ready to start my engine just like my colleagues, but the engines refused to start, and efforts made to start the engines were to no avail at this point, I realized that the problem had come when I saw the performance of the old woman and the man.
”As the bullets started coming, the soldiers tried to respond, but none of their guns answered, and immediately I dived into the river. But suddenly, one of the engines started, some soldiers jumped into it, and the driver sped out of the community and carried me from the river.
”I do not know what he did to start his engine. Two of the soldiers in the boat sustained severe bullet wounds and were taken to the Bomadi General Hospital. The information then was that the JTF commander and one other officer were held hostage”.
”The following day, soldiers were mobilized from Agbarho to Okuama to negotiate and secure the release of the commander and others reported to have been held hostage.”
Source said soldiers mobilized from Agbarho who partook in the reinforcement that led to the burning of houses at Okuama, were also killed.
”The remobilized soldiers from Agbarho led by the Lieutenant Colonial, upon reaching Okuama, told the community folk that they were coming for peace talk. They said the soldiers should drop their weapons if they came for peace talks,” a soldier source told Vanguard.
”The commanding officer asked his men to drop their weapons, and as they did so, the community youths took the weapons away from all of them. Then, suddenly the youths descended on them by butchering them from all angles.
“As we were burning houses in the community, somebody ran out of one of the houses on fire, and I threatened to shoot if he ran. He hesitated a while and surrendered. So, we interrogated him as to why he remained in the village while all the others had fled.”
”His reply was odd and awkward. He answered by saying, it could be the blood on his head. Then, when he was asked how many he had killed? He said 46 and at this moment, a colleague cocked his gun and wanted to shoot him in anger, but others calmed him down, telling him that he was a possible source of hidden information.
”We discovered six shrines in the community in the process of burning the houses, which are stained with blood. We also burned them but one of the shrines refused to burn. It was one Hausa soldier who did what he did to set it ablaze.
”The culprit, after his confessions, also led us to discover hidden corpses under the jetty at the community waterfront. He has already been flown to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja”.
The killings represents, perhaps the worst loss suffered by the military in peacetime for many years, and condemnations have come in strongly from President Bola Tinubu, who vowed to bring the perpetrators to book, to Chief Edwin Clark, leader of PANDEF; Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election, leaders of the Ijaw and Urhobo communities, among others. And the military, whose fury has been palpable has continued to its manhunt for the culprits.
The inhabitants of Okuama, most of whom are currently in the forests battling hunger, as neighbouring communities, wary of incurring the wrath of soldiers, turned them away, had alleged in an interview with a local TV station, that the soldiers opened fire on villagers in their town hall after the community refused their attempt to take away the community leaders after what had been a friendly peace talk. But the military quickly dismissed the claim as propaganda.
The army, enraged, has vowed to bring all those involved to justice. Speaking on Thursday at a meeting with traditional rulers in Asaba, Delta State capital, the General Officer Commanding, 6 Division, Nigerian Army /Land Component Commander, Joint Task Force, South-South, Operation Delta State, Maj. Gen. Jamal Abdussalam, declared that his troops would remain in the creeks of the Niger Delta until the killers of the military personnel are arrested and the weapons of the killed soldiers recovered.
While Okuama remains the epicenter of the crisis, a number of other communities in the region have also witnessed the onslaught of soldiers desperate to avenge the killing of their colleagues and have extended their search for the masterminds to Bayelsa and Rivers states.
In the coastal town of Igbemotoru in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, troops laid siege as they carried out a manhunt for a militant leader suspected to have a hand in the killings, a development, sources say, is fast escalating into a humanitarian crisis with a number of youths said to have been killed and inhabitants fleeing to forests, where they now survive without food.
Similarly, residents of Sangana community in the Brass Local Government Area of the same Bayelsa, say they have been thrown into panic as soldiers have stormed the community in a show of force.
Residents said on Thursday that soldiers stormed the community with a drone on Wednesday evening in search of those involved in the killing of soldiers.
Sangana community shares a boundary with Igbematoru community in Southern Ijaw, where the military had initially allegedly invaded and killed some residents at a jetty.
“It’s been chaos and panic,” said a resident of Igbemotoru who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity. “Many people fled as soldiers stormed the place and started ransacking everywhere. Yes, a number of people were killed.”
Back in Delta, people of Orere community in Warri South, say they are also in panic mode over the events in Okuama, which had led to heavy presence of soldiers in the area.
“We now sleep with one eye closed,” said a resident, who simply gave his name as Richard. “The whole thing has degenerated into a big crisis, putting everything on the edge. There are soldiers everywhere, brutalising people. What happened at Okuama is very terrible, nobody supports it. But I think the military can rely more on intelligence in going after the killers so innocent people don’t suffer.”
Militants Connection
While much attention has been on Okuama, it would have been unlikely that ordinary villagers could muster enough courage and military arsenal to be able to take out such number and calibre of soldiers.
And indeed, it has emerged that a top militant leader, who is currently on the run, coordinated the attack. It was gathered that soldiers tracked the fleeing militant leader to the riverside town of Igbomorotu during which they left the community in ruins.
The militant (names withheld), according to some accounts, hailed from the Awawa community, while others said he is Akwagbe, a community close to Okuama community.
Sources said his mother is from Igbomotoru, took him back to her ancestral home after she parted ways with his father, and remarried in her community, where he grew up in the backwaters of Igbomotoru.
He is also said to be the founder of a peace group and volunteer force and is also involved in humanitarian work.
According to reports, it was him, who renovated the dilapidated home of the late Niger Delta freedom fighter, Isaac Boro, at Kaiama in Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, and gave N1 million to the Boro family to support his anniversary.
While some said he also played a role in stemming crude oil theft in the Bomo axis of the state, others claimed he was into bunkering, claims that could not be independently verified.
Root cause of the crisis
Both Okuama and Okoloba, though Urhobo and Ijaw, have had rich history of close relationship, a dispute over common boundary had in recent years, led to protracted crisis, one which militant warlords have often taken advantage of to advance their activities.
The Ijaw of Okoloba have historically maintained that the Okuama land belongs to them. They argue that Okuama people only came there to farm because it was a very fertile land and then gradually started settling there.
Of recent, they started asking for tenements, which the Okuama rejected, arguing that their ancestors were buried on the land and had never paid rent to anyone. The claims and counter claims had led to persistent crisis, which reared its ugly head again following the alleged abduction of Mr. Aboh, which then led to the involvement of soldiers.
Some accounts have it that at the boundary side of Okoloba, there exists a white mansion, which belongs to an influential warlord alleged to be an ally of Tompolo. The warlord is alleged to own a shrine in the mansion, where he practices human sacrifices as rituals in worshipping Egbesu, a war god.
The militant warlord, it was gathered, had in February, armed his boys, who often put on military uniforms, and attacked a commercial boat conveying some Okuama community boys. The boys were allegedly all murdered by this warlord and he labeled them criminals.
He then reportedly wrote to Joint Task Force saying that they were criminals. The development angered the Okuama community, and tension brewed. Thus, when Aboh from Okoloba community went missing, his relation from Okoloba community, his brother said to a local politician concluded that it was the Okuoma community that kidnapped him to avenge the killing of Okuama community boys.
He then reported the issue to the JTF in Bomadi, and in the process, the body of Aboh was discovered floating on River Forcados at Ayakoromor community, with his hands tied and head severed.
