A civil society group, Concerned Ijaw Citizens (CIC), has condemned a string of sponsored attacks and a well-orchestrated campaign of calumny against the leadership of the Nigerian military regarding the Okoloba/Okuama crisis.
The group, which made the condemnation in an open letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu, obtained by our correspondent in Lagos claimed that the sponsored campaign aim was to blackmail the Armed Forces with deliberate falsehood and unfounded stories in the media space as a ploy to demand the removal of the Service Chiefs.
In the letter jointly signed by its coordinator, Seigha Manager and the Publicity Secretary, Chief Andrew E. Elijah, CIC commended the level of professionalism of the military in handling the Okoloba/Okuama crisis. Also, they urged the Military Command not to be blackmailed into abandoning their professional duties.
The group stated that the Okoloba people believed in peaceful means to end the conflict and agreed to submit themselves to the Military Board of Inquiry.
CIC further stated that the Okoloba people have been notifying the relevant security agencies, local and state governments of the reckless activities of the Okuama people, including (but not limited to) alleged unwarranted harassment of defenceless women and men with machetes, clubs, bows, arrows, guns in their farms and fishing lakes, rape, kidnap, arson, murder among others.
The group stated, “This negative media campaign made up of concocted stories end deliberately misleading headlines started surfacing immediately after the killing of the 17 military personnel in Okuama and continued unabated up till the setting up of the probe panel by the army high command to date.
“We are duty bound to alert the rest of the country and Mr President that the sole objective of the Okuama people rejecting the panel of inquiry is to hoodwink the rest of the country into joining their ungodly attempt to rubbish the efforts of the Armed Forces that lost officers and men in Okuama most brutally to distract their attention from another planned attack from Urhobo communities.”
