Federal Government should rebuild Okuoma community

By Otuedon Vincent

Is the Federal Government in support of the destruction of properties of an entire community, including possible casualties of innocent citizens over the evil of some hoodlums?

I once again advocate the strengthening and review of the operations of all institutions of government including the military and paramilitary to align with national goals and objectives. Institutions of government are creatures of law and have no power to do anything not permitted by law and cannot be above the law otherwise it will become a monster. As sacrilegious as the act of the hoodlums of Okuoma Village the military should have resisted the temptation of a reprisal attack. Hearts were already broken over the gruesome and senseless murder of the gallant soldiers, the death of any one more innocent citizen is in furtherance of the senseless killing.

The senseless murder of the officers is a national horror but the burning of the community is a more worrisome horror. The action of soldiers to burn down the community is counterproductive, unsupportable under any façade and not even beneficial to the soldiers themselves. If you are a gallant serving officer today, tomorrow you will be retired, if the safety of all your years of service, earnings and achievement in life is dependent on the good conduct of your entire community, definitely you have no future. Some of the houses burnt could belong to retired or serving military or paramilitary officers and other well-meaning Nigerians serving the nation in various capacities. Imagine subjecting all your years of service or life investment to the good conducts of some hoodlums in your community, this may not mean much to serving officers now until their retirement.

Hoodlums burnt down government establishments and then government burnt down citizens houses, hoodlums killed innocent soldiers, soldiers in turn victimized the entire community, where is professionality? Now that both parties are burning, who will build the nation? Since the innocence of the innocents means nothing to both parties, who will secure the innocent citizens? Two wrongs they say do not make a right.

Intelligence based operations would have saved us all the stress except that institutions of government no longer have confidence in themselves. Every field is getting more professional such that arms are fashioned with precision otherwise it would amount to a wasted time, energy and resources. The military is aware that more often than not criminals of this nature would have vacated the premises almost immediately leaving the vulnerable (women, children and the aged).

Both military and paramilitary should have had ready and robust professional modus in dealing with issues of this nature, the burning of an entire community querying our intelligence architecture and not supportable under any guise, there is no community in Nigeria where the entire members are criminals. What the soldiers just suffered is what the innocent citizens in the communities have been suffering, to hold them accountable again for the activities of the criminals or victimize them for the same is unfair. The account of Sodom and Gomorrah as reported in the Holy Bible is instructive, where God said if I find ten righteous men, I will not destroy the cities, that is five per city and when He could not find He ensured the only righteous family was rescued before the destruction. The innocence of the innocent must count in any operation.

The principle of criminal justice remains sacrosanct that it is better for twenty criminals to go free than for one innocent individual to suffer unjustly. The fear of soldiers will not stop crime, it is the fear of that long arm of the law that will eventually catch-up with any criminal that secures a society. The fear of the law is the fulcrum of peace and security of a state not the fear of arm or force, the intelligence operation would have been targeted at bringing the very culprit to book, any other action whether against a person or property other than the criminals themselves is only compounding the already bad situation.

The military should have been more professional in fishing out the criminals, because this pattern of criminality is a bit strange on our shores, where after the gruesome murder of the victims’ body parts were excavated. More so, allegation of complexity of Tantita Security should never be discarded or swept under the carpet but thoroughly investigated, this is because first the removal of security of national asset from military and paramilitary to private security is not only unconstitutional but also risky because of the multi ethnic nature of the Niger Delta rivers and the attendance melee between the ethnic groups. The private security officers do not have formal security training nor are they under oath.

Also if the killing of the soldiers was premeditated, what led to that level of animosity of the hoodlums against the military? On the other hand if it was a likelihood of mistaken identity, what transpired that led to the mistaken identity? The government must be interested and launch a comprehensive investigation rather than the impulse response

Federal government while reaching out to the families of the demised officers must also reach out as a matter of urgency to the innocent and living members of the community who have been displaced without home and means of livelihood, whose only crime is to be a member of the community while  the manhunt continues. That is why every institution of government must weigh carefully the consequences of their actions.

Otuedon Vincent is a human activist and President, Liberty Harbingers Network