Killing of soldiers in Delta senseless, embarrassing

A member of the House of Representatives representing Bomadi/Patani Federal Constituency of Delta State, Nicholas Mutu has condemned Thursday’s killing of 16 soldiers by some irate youths of Okuama community, an Urhobo enclave in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.

Mutu, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Gas, described the Okuama killings as “barbaric and inhuman.”

He made his position on the incident known in a statement issued by his media office and made available to journalists in Warri on Sunday.

The lawmaker said, “The killings of the 16 soldiers, including a Lt. Col, two Majors and one Captain of the Nigerian Army, on a peacekeeping assignment in the Urhobo community, was senseless and embarrassing.”

He challenged all relevant security agencies to “work round the clock to fish out the killers and bring them to justice,” warning that the criminals should not escape justice to serve as a deterrent to those who may be planning to indulge in such heinous crimes in the future.

Mutu condoled the families of the fallen soldiers, the Nigerian Army and the Armed Forces on the tragic development, praying to God to grant the repose of the souls of “the gallant soldiers, who were gruesomely murdered while performing patriotic national assignments.”

Reacting to the reports of the incident in a section of the press which linked the fate of the soldiers to Ijaw militias in Okoloba, an Ijaw community in the Bomadi LG, he said, “This is far from the truth of the incident. The Ijaw is not in any way linked or connected to this unjustifiable, barbaric, inhuman, and condemnable act.

“The facts of the matter are with all appropriate security agencies, and they are in fact in the public domain. The indigenes of Okuama are responsible for these senseless killings. Two contingents of troops of the Nigerian Army who were deployed separately on a peace-keeping mission in Okuama, particularly to investigate the killing of an Okoloba boy, were ambushed and wilfully murdered in cold blood in Okuama

“Their headless and dismembered remains were recovered in the waters of the Okuama community, which is the scene of the crime.

“It’s therefore callous and indiscretionary to link the Ijaw to this heinous crime, which is a national embarrassment. It’s wrong for a section of the press to link the innocent Ijaw people to this crime, and I seize this medium to debunk such irresponsible reports on the incident.”

Mutu continued, “I condemn the reports linking the Ijaw with this crime and call on the authors of such falsehood to retract them and apologise to the Ijaw nation, forthwith.”