Ex military personel, Major General Cecil Esekhaigbe (retd) has shared the tragic incident of how 16 military personnel were murdered last Thursday, in the Okuama community of Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State. Esekhaigbe stated during the Morning Brief breakfast show on Channels Television that the unsuspecting soldiers were ambushed by residents of the community.
According to his statement, the Nigerian soldiers lost their lives while on a mission to quell clashes between two communities in the South-South state of Delta on Thursday.
Two Majors, one Captain, and 12 soldiers were reported by the Defence Headquarters as part of the personnel.
According to a statement from the Director, Defence Information, Brig. General Tukur Gusau, the troops from the 181 Amphibious Battalion were deployed in the Bomadi region and were on a peace-keeping mission in the Okuama community when they were killed.
Many stakeholders have condemned the killings, with President Bola Tinubu vowing that the perpetrators will not go unpunished.
Reacting to the killings, Esekhaigbe said the soldiers were in the coastal community to find out why their colleagues who were on a peacekeeping mission to the village were held hostage and not to fight.
He added that the soldiers could have been saved if they had been prepared. He also criticized the expenditure on an amnesty program intended for militia groups to disarm.
After the amnesty and the purported surrendering of weapons, if we still have local communities with sophisticated weapons like this, a re-examination of the entire process is necessary, he stated.
Esekhaigbe listed the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, drug abuse, and lack of governance as contributory factors when speaking on the insecurity in the state. He therefore called for the institutions to be revamped instead of simply renaming them.
