Senate President Godswill Akpabio has said the Senate would constitute a committee to investigation and ascertain whether the killers of the murdered military officers in Delta State were mercenaries.
Troops attached to 181 Amphibious Batallion, Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta were killed while on peace mission.
Trouble started when the troops responded to a distress call after the communal crisis between the Okuoma and Okoloba communities both in the South South State.
Speaking at plenary during a debate on the killings, Akpabio said the nation was not at war, calling for peace to be restored in the community.
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“I don’t want to conclude that these people are from Niger Delta, because we respect men and women in uniform. That is why I am saying that your additional prayer should be to carry out a thorough investigation to know whether they were mercenaries outside Nigeria, who came in to commit this crime, because I don’t think these people are from Niger Delta.”
“We are not at war. Even in the field of war, to lose such a number of personnel, no community will go to the extent of doing that kind of thing; I don’t think they are from Niger Delta. So I think the first point should be that we should establish the culprits who committed this crime.”
He said a panel would be saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that those involved in the killings were brought to justice.
Senator Abdullaziz Yar’adua (Katsina) and Ede Dafinone (Delta Central) had moved motions for the issue to be investigated.
Yar’adua in his motion, asked the federal government to recruit more policemen to take charge of internal security, while the military should be allowed to perform the key function of protecting the country from external aggression.
Contributing to the motion, the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, described the killing of the soldiers as despicable and inhuman, stressing that no stone should be left unturned to bring the perpetrators to book.
Senator Jibrin said, “What happened is despicable. It is inhuman and it is something that cannot be accepted. We need to commensurate with the Nigerian Armed Forces and indeed the entire nation, to condole the immediate families of the fallen heroes and the Nigerian military for what happened.
“These were men that were trained by the Nigerian government and huge resources spent on them to defend the territorial integrity of this country and keep us safe as nation. Now, they were killed for no no reason; not at a time of conflict, not at the war front, they were just murdered in the worst fashion that you can think about.”
In his contribution, Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North) said, “What happened in Delta was not an accident; it was orchestrated to kill our military men in a barbaric manner. The military authorities and the federal government should work out a compensation plan for the families of the deceased.”
