In news reports, the Senate has directed its committees on Defence, Army, Air Force, and Navy to immediately investigate the situations that led to the murder of an army commander, three officers, and 12 other soldiers by yet-to-be-identified attackers in the Okuama community of Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State on 14 March. The Senate observed a one-minute silence in honour of the slain soldiers and urged the Federal Government to pay compensation to their families. The Senate resolution followed a motion of urgent national importance moved by the Chairman, of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, and seconded by Senator Edeh Dafinone. The Senate further resolved to urge the “Federal Government to ensure that those responsible for the murder of the soldiers are identified, tried, and made to face the full wrath of the law.” It called for the recruitment and training of more policemen to take charge of their duties of maintaining internal security and allow the army to concentrate on its traditional role in the affairs of the country. Incidentally, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who presided over Tuesday’s plenary, said he did not believe that the attackers were indigenes of the Niger Delta, saying they might be “mercenaries” or “not even Nigerians.”
Akpabio, who interjected as the debate on the motion progressed, noted that even in a war situation, citizens would take precautionary measures to avoid killing soldiers. Also, the House of Representatives condemned the killing of officers and men of the Nigerian Army. The House mandated its Committee on Defence to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings and urged the armed forces to work with relevant authorities, to bring those behind the dastardly act and their collaborators to book. The committee is expected to report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative action. This followed the adoption of a motion by Babajimi Benson on the need to “investigate and apprehend perpetrators of the gruesome killing of 17 military personnel in Delta State.”
