Banner Online News

By Pius Mordi

The gruesome and mindless killing of 17 servicemen at Okuama has occasioned the reenactment of the traumatic events of some years ago in Zaki Biam and Odi when the sins of a few sons of lucifer were visited on many innocent people. A similar thing was enacted in Gaza when some hotheads among Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and abducted hundreds.

The response by Israel has divided opinions within the international community. Seven months after Hamas struck, the IDF is still executing its agenda to decimate the militant group. In the process, over 31,000 civilians in Gaza are said to have been killed in the course of Israel’s operations.

Here in Nigeria, there was no shortage of voices of condemnation of Israel just as there are many that support the IDF.
One of such vocal voices is that of Bashir Ahmad, one of former Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesmen who wholeheartedly condemned Israel for among other things overreacting and recklessly inflicting much havoc on the civilian population.
But after the terrible killings in Okuama happened, Ahmad who supported the mob killing of Deborah Samuel in a Zamfara school for alleged blasphemy against Islam became an apostle of indiscriminate retaliatory military operation at Okuama so that “to treat the people in the language they understand” in his tweet.

Unfortunately, this was a common denominator in the response of Nigerians to the killings. The mass hysteria generated by the killing has had the effect of handing a carte blanche to the military to seek revenge on the community. When such things happen, only a small circle of people are usually involved in its conception and execution.

Just like the October 7, 2023 killing of Israelis by a section of Hamas militants where the people of Gaza had no fore knowledge of the operation or its execution, the people of Okuama were not consulted by the people that carried out the dastardly act nor was any endorsement given even after the killings.

In the aftermath of the hysteria, Okuama has become Gaza-nized. When Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, visited the area on Monday, March 18, 2024, he could not access the community. Similarly, the state Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Abaniwonda, admitted that he has been denied access to Okuama by the military since the incident took place. In fact, there was no Okuama to visit because it has become a war theatre. The military has condoned off the area with its retaliatory operation already on. The search for and smoking out of the perpetrators of the heinous killings is what Nigerians want. They should be fished out and made to face justice. But in demanding that the killers be made to account for their action, every care must be taken to avoid a wholesale decimation of Okuama.

By every means that does not endanger the civilian population, the military should apprehend those that carried out the killings. It is not an easy task but engaging in indiscriminate bombardment of the community is not an option or ought not to have been. For Okuama people, their story is that of having become displaced persons. Their community has been razed, many killed and the end of their nightmare is not in sight.
Right now, the people of Okuama need help. They have become internally displaced persons with nowhere to lay down their head. The cessation of the military operation may not bring any succour to them. When they eventually return to their community, there will no homes to welcome them back.