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Five days after the President-General of Okuama community in the Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, Pa James Oghoroko, reportedly died in military detention, the 81-year-old treasurer, Dennis Okugbaye, was also said to have lost his life in similar circumstance. Both leaders, along with several others were arrested by the military last August, following a violent raid on Okuama community that forced residents to flee into the bush. Many of the displaced are now pining away at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Ewu Kingdom. But serious questions are now being raised on the condition under which the military authorities are keeping the suspects and how two died within a period of one week.
It all started in March this year when communal gunmen ambushed troops of the 181 Amphibious Battalion after which the commanding officer, a Lt Colonel, and 16 other army personnel were gruesomely murdered. In a statement he personally signed, President Bola Tinubu condemned the killing of the soldiers who were on a peace mission as “unconscionable crime against the Nigerian people” while authorising military authorities to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice. While also calling that those who killed the troops be apprehended and made to pay for their crime, we stated in a previous editorial that restraint on the part of the military was important so that innocent people would not be punished for the crime committed by a few.
Because of the way the issue has been handled, sympathy has shifted from the tragic killings of the soldiers at Okuama to the human rights credentials of our military in their dealings with civilians. There is therefore an urgent need to speed up the investigations so that those who are complicit could be handed to police for prosecution while the innocent ones can secure their freedom. The circumstances under which two detainees died in military custody should also be investigated.
Meanwhile, we reiterate our earlier position that military authorities should be concerned by the growing numbers of their personnel being ambushed and killed by criminals. Military operations in such an environment of volatility, and complexity as the Niger Delta must be intelligence driven to prevent this kind of tragedy. But more importantly, political authorities must also do more to resolve many of these land disputes that ignite violent eruptions. The problem is compounded by millions of illegal Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) in the country. The ease of access to these weapons has made individuals and communities more fortified and hence less amenable to entreaties to make peace. Many communities are self-arming to protect themselves, to go on the offensive or for reprisal attacks. The frequency of these clashes demonstrates that we are teetering towards a lawless society, with all the frightening implications for peace and security in the nation.
We call on authorities in Abuja and the 36 states to arrest this rapid and steady slide into anarchy by addressing the conditions that make violent attacks tools of expressing grievances between and among communities. We also enjoin them to devise effective conflict resolution mechanisms, create an early warning system that would alert of a brewing crisis, equip security agencies with modern intelligence gathering tools and promote policies that encourage peaceful coexistence and social harmony. Community and religious leaders must also rise to help in promoting peaceful co-existence among our people.
Above all, we must accept that the insecurity confronting the nation is no longer a series of random and opportunistic attacks. Drafting in military troops to theatres of violence arising from land disputes has over the years proved to be no solution. The time has therefore come to realise the severity of the threat to our national security by reassessing the current strategies which have become ineffectual and costly. In urging our military to always exercise a “disciplined use of force” in times of crisis, a former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, also reminded them during a visit to Nigeria that “one person’s atrocity does not excuse another’s.”
It is an admonition that will serve the military as they pursue justice on the Okuama tragedy.
