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Former Commissioner in Delta State and Niger Delta leader, Prof Patrick Muoboghare, has criticized the manner the Nigerian Army is clamping down on the people of Okuama after the killing of 17 soldiers on March 14.
The Nigerian Army has been on the ground in Okuama in Ughelli South LGA, Delta State after that incident with reports that the soldiers have descended on the people, destroyed the community, and killed some residents while other residents fled to the forest to seek refuge.
In an interview with Vanguard, Muoboghare condemned the approach the soldiers are using which he said is wrong and unfair to the people of Okuama who were not responsible for the killing of the soldiers. He insisted that the Nigerian Army knows those behind the killing. He advised the military to go after the real mastermind of the killings and even bring in the police and the DSS who have the special training to do underground investigation, follow up, track and nab those who committed the act.
Responding to a question on whether the Army should bring in the police, Muoboghare said, ”a Yes, the police know how to go about it. Do you know how long it took the police to track down Dr Oyenusi, the dreaded armed robber from the West? What about Anini? They gathered information; they gathered intel, and when that Supol got to Dr Oyenusi’s place, what did he say? ‘Doctor, I am here for you’. Dr Oyenusi knew that the game was over.
”Police also tracked Anini to the room where he was with his girlfriend, it was not a one-day job. That was the level of training those police officers had. Anini killed people and police officers in Agbor, shot the Commissioner of Police and terrorized the people but the police did not go to Anini’s village to destroy it. They took their time and tracked Anini to where he was hiding. The police should teach the military how to operate in a civilian environment.”
”They will get Amagbein whom the CDS said was the mastermind. So, they should leave Okuama for us, if they are excavating because they are looking for arms, they will excavate nothing unless the ones they planted there. Because no farmer in Okuama has money to buy an AK-47.”