By Kingston Magare
Okuama killings: Urhobo Professors lament continued detention of community leaders, want army to fish out the real culprits
The World Council of Urhobo Professors have faulted the continued detention of Okuama community leaders without trial over their alleged involvement in the killing of 17 soldiers in the riverine community on March 14, 2014.
Six Okuama community leaders were clamped in military detention in August 2024 and there have not been charged to court for trial. Two of them 81-year-old Pa James Oghoroko and Dennis Okugbaye have died in detention.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV a member of the World Council of Urhobo Professors, Sunny Ahwefeada, said the army should be looking for the real culprits rather than punish innocent citizens for the heinous crime.
Okuama community in Ughelli South Local Government of Delta State was a scene of bloodbath in March 2024 when soldiers who claimed to be a peace mission in the community were ambushed by unknown persons and gruesomely murdered in cold blood. The army sacked the community in reprisal attacks dislodging the citizens.
“We are all confused that one year after the intelligence community has not been able to make any headway in identifying the real perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to book, it is quite unfortunate.
“And I should put it on record here that identifying the perpetrators and bringing them to book is a step towards closure. So, we are waiting and hopeful that someday the intelligence community will be able to do the need so that we can actually know those behind that heinous crime.
“These people that were arrested, even if they are considered suspects, should be handed over to the police and be charged to court. So, as far as we are concerned, in as much as they have not been convicted, they are still innocent, and we feel that they have been held for too long.
“They were arrested between 18th and 20th of August, this is March, this is more than half a year since they incarcerated, one of them, an 80-year-old man died in military detention. So, we are thinking that these people should be released.”
