Murder of 17 Soldiers: Okuama-Ewu in ruins as Oborevwori finally visits
Okuama-Ewu community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State was in complete ruins with debris of demolished buildings scattered everywhere when Governor Sheriff Oborevwori visited yesterday.CONTINUE READING>>>>>
The Anglican Church among a few others seemed to be the only buildings spared.Soldiers temporarily live in the houses left standing.
They pulled down the homes of the villagers, who fled the community after the March 14 killings of 17 military personnel and an unspecified number of villagers.
Okuama-Ewu was desolate and gradually being overtaken by weeds, and there was no single villager to welcome the governor yesterday.
The governor’s visit to Okuama-Ewu came 37 days after the gruesome killings of March 14.
The Army denied him access to the community on March 18, but the Commander, 63 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Unachukwu Ugochukwu, and other top government officials accompanied him.
The Army has equally denied the residents of Okuama still taking cover in the forest and other hideouts access to their homeland.
Soldiers conducting a cordon-and-search operation were the only human beings occupying the community when the governor visited.
Oborevwori, who has been working underground, unknown to his critics, to manage the crisis, said he came to see what happened in Okuama-Ewu and work out how to reintegrate the innocent people back to the community with the cooperation of the military.
He, however, assured that his administration was doing a lot to resolve the dispute, saying residents of Okuama would soon return home.
Oborevwori told reporters, “We have followed due process in the whole incident. The people (17 soldiers) have been buried and the king who was detained was released yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) I am here to see what happened in the Okuama community.
“The Okuama-17 is something that we did not expect to happen because it is against our bargain for peace and security which, I promised Deltans, that we are going to enhance.
“We have been enjoying peace and security since last year until the 14th of March when the four army officers and 13 soldiers were murdered.
“They were not just murdered, their bodies were mutilated and we have come here to see what happened.CONTINUE READING>>>>>
