… the shame of a state.
The gruesome killings of military personnel and Indigenes of Okwuama in Ughelli south local government area of Delta state by unknown gun runners have once again illustrated the failure of the state government to protect its citizens.
It is so shameful and embarrassing, that the number one security officer of the state has been denied access to see the level of carnage done to Okwuama community.
Secondly why the government is trying to condemned the act, in its press release, on his verified Facebook account, it reads as below: “I am deeply saddened by the unprovoked killing of officers and soldiers attached to 63 Brigade at Okuama community, Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the gallant officers, soldiers, the Nigerian Army and the Armed Forces of Nigeria in general.
The State Government shall take all measures necessary to fish out all those behind this dastardly act and ensure they are made to face the full wrath of the law.’ Says the Governor.
No single show of mercy for the people of Okuama Community, whose lives and properties were lost. While many lost their lives through the process of trying to escape for survival.
Okuama Community was attacked in what has become a pattern of a failed or a fast-failing state. I am sad, pained and aggrieved by the flagrant failure of the number one security officer of the state. Who was denied access to the Okwuama Community and yet he could not speak a word nor sympathized with the families of Indigenes killed during the outright carnage done to the community.
To thwart the Military plot by going further, Rt. Hon. Elder Sheriff Oborevwori ought to have set up panel of inquiry, including Retired Major Generals, Bishops, top Reverend Fathers and Head of civil Society Organizations before even going to meet with Mr. President.
With these panel of inquiry they will now invite the military and Okwuama Community leaders for a proper investigation because many believed that there are elements in the security agencies that collude with the attackers and are complicit in these killings.
Excuses like not giving access to the number one citizen of the state to access the level of destruction carried out in Okuama Community, it give credence to speculations that the state governor has failed, and perhaps, he only sympathizes with the military families killed, these alone have given a big leverage to the Military to do more, because it looks like the entire community commit the crime.
We are all comfortable analysing the Okwuama carnage in our various homes, yet a lot of old men and old women may be helpless in the forest, or some are already dead in the forest because no shelter, no food and no clothes. What about the kids and youths whose learning process were put on hold, how on earth could such kids pick up, after been face with horror at such tender age.
Nobody had asked how they are all faring in the forest, what about the families of those killed, relations couldn’t give their loved ones a proper burial as it is done in the Urhobo tradition to bury the dead.
Well! 17 Military personel were slaughtered brutally with other Okuama indigenes, the frequency of their killings and the fact that no single person has ever been arrested and prosecuted also support the theory of collusion by some members of our security Operatives. It brings a sinking feeling to many stomach.
Another Gaza unloading with no access for humanitarian services. Speculatively, scores and numbers of people have gone missing and more than 500 people are presumed to have gone to the great beyond in a manner that seems like escort of the infamous 17 military personnel who died in the fracas at Okuama.
Denial of assess into Okuama for independent assessment by local and international investigation is tantamount to ethnic cleansing and should not be allowed to continue as this might escalate the tension in the region. Let Okuama breathe!
Urhobos at home and in Diaspora have shown outrage at the carnage melted on Okuama Community, though some members of the international commity, have been shocked by what is apparently ethnic cleansing of the Okuama community of Urhobo speaking extraction.
