News

FLASH: Killers Of 16 Soldiers Are Not Nigerians – Akpabio

ByKazeem Badmus

PublishedMarch 19, 2024

In a twist of events, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has disclosed that those involved in Thursday’s killing of 16 officers at Okuama in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State are not from the Niger Delta geopolitical zone of the country or even from Nigeria.

The deceased were from the 181 Amphibious Battalion.

Akpabio, while speaking on Tuesday during a debate on two merged motions by Senators Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, APC, Katsina Central, and Edeh Dafinone, APC, Delta Central, the Senate President noted that the youths who killed the soldiers may be mercenaries.

He said that we are not at war, adding, ” I don’t think they are from the Niger Delta, they may be mercenaries.

The Senate said it has begun a probe into the killings as it has asked its Committee on Defence, Army, Navy, and Air Force to liaise with the military authorities to get more information on the remote and immediate cause of what it described as a dastardly act.

The Senate has called on the federal government to apprehend the perpetrators of the horrific killing of military personnel in the Okuoma community of Delta State on March 14, 2024, and bring them to book, just as it observed a minute of silence in honour of the killing.

The Senate, however, rejected a prayer to observe a minute of silence or to commiserate with the families of innocent civilians killed in the process, saying that their numbers are still unknown.

While the Senate rejected an additional prayer for relief materials for the community by the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, as proposed by Senator Dafinone, the Upper Chamber resolved that families of the killed soldiers should be compensated immediately, as moved by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, APC, Kano North, and seconded by Senator Tony Nwoye, LP, Anambra North.