Army blames Okuama Delta community for attack

The Nigerian Army appears to have landed on collective blame for last week's shocking murder of its personnel in Delta State, according to a press statement released on Monday, March 18, 2024.

A gang of gunmen killed one commanding officer, two majors, one captain, and 12 soldiers who were reportedly on a rescue mission in Okuama in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta on Thursday, March 14.

The upsetting attack has raised fears of the military's possible reprisal attack against the community for the actions of a few. To counter reports that soldiers already occupied the community and even razed down some buildings, the Army released a statement on Monday accusing the community of propaganda.

"Regrettably, the community complicit in this dastardly act has resorted to media propaganda and shenanigans, rather than engage in a positive effort to fish out the perpetrators of this heinous crime. This again is a clear indication that the murder of the troops was a communally orchestrated attack against legitimate forces," the Army's spokesperson, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, said.

Despite the finger-pointing, the military spokesperson still assured Nigerians the community would not be brutalised as a collective.

"While law-abiding citizens are assured that there will be no reprisal on the part of the troops, we enjoin all to go about their normal activities, even as ongoing efforts are scaled up to positively identify and isolate the criminals to account for their atrocious deeds," he added.

Nwachukwu's statement reiterated that the troops of 181 Amphibious Battalion were on a "peaceful and mediatory mission" in response to a reported communal clash between Okuama and Okoloba in Bomadi LGA of Delta.

Regardless of his assurance, the military's indication of a possible communal nature to the crime is expected to heighten already high tension in the community. Fears of a community-scale reprisal are based on a history of the military's similar brutalisation of civilian communities for the crimes of a few, most notably marked by the infamous Odi massacre of 1999 and other incidents since then.

In his reaction on Sunday, March 17, President Bola Tinubu granted "full authority" to the military to bring anybody found to have been responsible for the attack to justice.

"Troops are determined to get to these criminals, there is certainly no hiding place for them," Nwachukwu said on Monday.