Okuama elders must expose those who killed the 17 soldiers
After Odi and Zaki-Biam, one would have thought that those who hide under all shades of appellations to commit crimes, especially murder — militants, cultists, bandits, hoodlums and whatever, would have learnt that you don’t mess up with the military and expect to get away with it. But Okuama has proved that the lesson is yet to be learnt. But neither the youths of that community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State nor their elders have been at peace since March 14 when some of their misguided youths committed something akin to sacrilege by killing 17 military personnel in the most horrible manner. Those misguided youths have now brought calamity to their parents. That is why their community has suddenly become a ghost community. And the elders too are beginning to count the number of days they have gone without food and have had to flee their communities for fear of reprisals by soldiers whose officers and men their youths killed.
But before further confusing those of the youths in Okuama and other parts of the country who may be wondering what Odi and Zaki-Biam mean, or is all about, let’s go down the memory lane. We need to do that to properly situate the Okuama murders in relation to Odi and Zaki-Biam. It is true most of our youths have access to tonnes of materials online, but most times, they are in the wrong sites. That was why one of them who was schooling in Ikenne, Ogun State, the hometown of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, replied some years ago in response to a question as to whether he knew or has ever heard of Chief Awolowo. The student replied that he did not know Chief Awolowo and that the only Obafemi he knew was Obafemi Martins! That is the level of the ignorance of many of our youths today. It is that bad. It may not entirely be their fault though; the study of History was for some time banned in our secondary schools.
So, it is for the benefit of such youths that we have to briefly travel to both Odi and Zaki-Biam before returning to Okuama.
First Odi. Dateline: November 20, 1999. The Nigerian Armed Forces, said to be acting on the orders of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, invaded Odi, a predominantly Ijaw community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, killing many people and burning down several houses in the process. The attack was the military’s response to the ambush and brutal killing of 12 policemen, including a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who were passing through Odi. The soldiers were brought in to enforce law and order after the killings. They too were ambushed.
Days after the soldiers’ invasion, many people in the community were killed while Odi was completely destroyed, with decomposing bodies lining the streets. Those that were lucky to have survived fled. Such was the severity of the devastation that some people referred to the attack on Odi as a ‘massacre’. But, one thing that Odi elders did not do that later brought calamity to their community was that they all the while knew about the so-called ‘Asawana boys’ who killed the policemen but did not do enough to get them off the community until it was late. According to Goddey Niweigha, the community development chairman of Odi town in an interview with Premium Times in 2019: ”We forgave the army because at those initial times when those hoodlums were coming into the community, we were supposed to stop them but we didn’t. We did not even know that an incident like this will come much later, so, by the time we feel let us go and deal with them “water don pass garri”. So we also blame ourselves somehow.” It is instructive that the gang also had some youths from Odi as members.
Then Zaki-Biam. This happened in 2001 when troops invaded the town located in the Sankera axis of Benue State, and several other communities on that path, including Gbeji, Vaase, Iorja, Tse Adoor, Kyado, Anyiin and Ugba, following reports of the murder of no fewer than 19 soldiers who were sent to maintain the peace over a lingering crisis involving communities there. As it was in Odi, the troops reportedly reduced the place to mere rubble.
The stories are too long to be summarised here and those not conversant with the events are advised to go and read them up. But, no one would expect that any community would allow a repeat of the kind of things that happened in these two places that brought untold calamities to the victims in Odi and Zaki Biam.
Unfortunately, here we are talking about the killing of 17 soldiers, including four officers on March 14, in Okuama. The officers and soldiers of the 181 Amphibious Battalion, were deployed on a peace-keeping mission to quell community clashes between the people of Okuama and Okoloba when they were gruesomely murdered.
They were Lieutenant -Colonel AH Ali – commanding officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion, Major SD Shafa, Major DE Obi, Captain U Zakari, Staff Sgt Yahaya Saidu, Cpl Yahaya Danbaba, Cpl Kabiru Bashir, LCpl Bulus Haruna, LCpl Sole Opeyemi and LCpl Bello Anas. Others were LCpl Hamman Peter, LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi, Private Alhaji Isah, Private Clement Francis, Private Abubakar Ali, Private Ibrahim Adamu and Private Adamu Ibrahim. Col. Ali, from reports, had distinguished himself in the theatres of war in the northern part of the country. He did not die in those battles, only for him to be killed like chicken by some rag-tag murderers.
What is annoying is that it is after some criminals had committed heinous crimes that people would now be talking of restraint on the part of the military that is aggrieved. Even if the soldiers are only interested in getting those who committed the crimes and not necessarily reprisal, the fact is that people in the communities where such killings of soldiers were done would never believe the soldiers would not come for them sooner or later. Maybe they learnt this from experience. But, this is the more reason why the Okuama elders and entire community indeed must cooperate with the military to fish out the criminals. Unfortunately, rather than do this, they continue to shield them for whatever reason.
This was what happened in Odi. It was what happened in Zaki Biam. It is the same thing that is happening in the northern parts of the country where terrorism and banditry have continued unabated. The terrorists, bandits, etc. live among the people. They interact with them; do social and commercial activities with the people and what have you. Yet, the people are not ready to blow the whistle on their identities.
We often forget that, yes, soldiers have signed to die for the country, that does not include premeditated butchering that happened in Okuama and other places earlier mentioned. We also forget that these soldiers killed were husbands, brothers, children, cousins, etc. to some other people. Attempts to reduce them to mere statistics must be rebuffed. They also have blood flowing in their veins.
Do those irresponsible murderers at Okuama have an idea of the fortune this country spent to train those military officers, locally and abroad? The country cannot afford to waste human resources that way.
All of these explained the then President Obasanjo’s decision not to treat the Odi incident with levity. The same reason why he did not pretend not to see that something sacrilegious had happened when security men on national service were decisioned in Zaki-Biam. It is for the same reason that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could not fold his hands after the shocking incident at Okuama.
The truth is; you don’t rubbish your military, the country’s last hope in times of war, and expect to be decorated with garlands for so doing. No government will close its eyes and watch the military being demystified the way Okuama youths tried to do on March 14. That government and indeed any country that permits that is already doomed; just that it has not yet found the person to tell it so. We can only continue to appeal to the soldiers to take it easy and go after only the criminals and not the entire community.
How could people who were going to mediate a dispute between two communities be so mercilessly murdered? Almost a week after, someone who claimed to be the head of the gang that killed them came out to allege that they were not in the place to mediate. Rather, they had come to take sides. How can that be? People that had come to take sides would have been armed and would have been more alert. They wouldn’t have strolled in without arms. Indeed, if that had been the situation, they would have been armed to the teeth and there would have been casualties both sides. It is going to be difficult to sell the allegation that they came to side the other community against Okuama in the situation where almost all the casualties were soldiers. Seventeen military personnel, including four officers, just killed without any strong resistance from their end? Those selling that crab should return to the drawing table to draw up more credible lies.
Let us even assume the soldiers were coming to take sides, was that why they should be butchered like cows? Was that why their hearts should be ripped open? What manner of grievance would make any right-thinking person kill that way? Obviously there is more to it than meets the eyes.
The gruesome manner the soldiers were killed suggested almost beyond doubts that the killings were premeditated. Giving the place of oil in that part of the country, especially the illegal bunkering and illegal refineries that used to dot the landscape, which the military and other task forces have been checkmating, it would seem the killing of the soldiers was the response of those benefitting from the illegalities to their activities that had been checked by the security agencies.
Although the military authorities had ordered investigation into the matter, I want to agree with the view that an independent enquiry would be better given that the military is a party to the issue.
Obviously, those who killed the soldiers were cowards. When real men commit such a crime, they stand by it. Only cowards would do such a thing and run away, only to be speaking through Tik Tok. It is the government’s duty to unmask those cowards and serve them their due comeuppance as a lesson to others that government would not take it kindly with people who delight in wasting such an important national asset. If we continue to deplete their ranks in such senseless fashion, to whom do we turn when we need their protection?
