Omoyele Sowore Condemns Killing Of Nigerian Soldiers, Demands Impartial Probe; Warns Army Against Reprisals, Jungle Justice

 

Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, has condemned in strongest terms, the killing of 16 soldiers of the Nigerian Army in Okuama community by the community youths during a peace mission embarked upon by the military personnel.

Okuama community is in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, south-south Nigeria.

It had been reported that a Commanding Officer, two Majors, one Captain and 12 soldiers of 181 Amphibious Battalion were killed by hoodlums in the Bomadi Local Government Area of the state.

The Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, who made this known in a statement on Saturday, said the military personnel were killed on Thursday while on a peace mission to the community.

They were surrounded and killed by some youths of the community, the military said.

Reacting to the incident, Sowore condemned the attack and the killing but warned that no security agency/ies should engage in jungle justice.

Sowore called on the Nigerian authorities to allow an impartial investigation involving international human rights organisations to bring those guilty to justice.

He stressed that the Nigerian Army must restrain its officers and ensure that the rights of innocent civilians are not breached carelessly as it had always done in similar cases.

 

 

In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Sunday, the candidate of the African Action Congress in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, said, “I have been inundated with gory images of alleged militants in the Niger Delta region killing Nigerian soldiers @HQNigerianArmy in an apparent ambush, following this, there has been a disturbing number of commentaries asking the Nigerian Army to “level” the area, mostly from Nigerians enlightened enough to know that such reaction constitutes international crime, the Nigerian army predictably has gone to battle to set some of the communities ablaze.

 

 

“While the attack of Nigerian security forces remains condemnable and unacceptable, no security agency/ies should engage in jungle justice.

“I call on the Nigerian authorities to allow an impartial investigation involving international human rights organizations into this crisis to bring those guilty to justice.

“However, the @HQNigerianArmy must restrain its officers and ensure that the rights of innocent civilians are not breached carelessly as it had always done in similar cases.”