CDS Musa alleges Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa has revealed the real reason 16 Nigerian army officers including a commander Lieutenant Colonel AH Ali were killed in the riverine community of Okuama,Delta State.
The soldiers from the 181 Battalion stationed in Bomadi had reportedly gone on a peace mission to the Okuama community, but were ambushed and murdered in cold blood and their weapons taken away. Members of the Okuama community were accused of having a hand in the death of the soldiers, an allegation they denied saying the soldiers killed about 50 persons in their community.
Now General Musa who addressed the Senate committee on defence hearing on the incident threw more light on the tragic deaths of the military men.
“We know who did this, we are following up with him, and it’s just a matter of time, we are sure we are going to get him,” General Musa said
“I know him, the CO himself, Lieutenant Colonel Ali, of recent, because we were emphasising, we want the oil production of Nigeria to increase so that we will be able to have enough foreign exchange, and then things can really go down because we all know the challenges we are going.
“And so, he insisted that all illegal activities within the general area must stop. So, he directed all his troops and they were stopping all these illegal bunkering, stopping all these things, and then these are the people benefitting from it.”
He added that those who murdered the soldiers cashed on the communal clashes in the area to perpetuate the crime.
“And so, when this issue came, it came as an opportunity for them to also go and do away with him, and that’s exactly what happened.
“Basically, it was a community clash that was happening and those are his own area of responsibilities, and that was why he responded when initially, his soldiers, some soldiers were apprehended by the communities.
“We know that because of these issues of bunkering, we have a lot of pirates, militants that are still operating in the area, and they have a lot of funding because of the area at which it’s been carried out. So, they always have a lot of arms with them.
“These are people they know and that’s why when he heard it, he felt that these are my community, these are the people I know, and he went to say, oh, this thing that you’re doing is not right, whatever it is within the community, we can do it, invite the stakeholders, let them come and handle it in a single mission and all these things, and the community said okay. And as they turned to go, they were rounding up, killed, not only killed, they were dismembered.
“And I don’t know what kind of a human being to go to that extent to go for people that came on a peaceful means, then that’s something that must be looked at.”
All the news you need...
