VANGUARD
The whereabouts of the bodies of residents of Okuama, Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, who died in the March 14 bloodbath that also saw the killing of 17 military personnel, has triggered another controversy.
This followed the demand by the Okuama leaders to know the location of the remains, alleging the Army had dug a mass grave in the community, buried the victims, and deposited the remains of others inside the river.
Leaders of the community who spoke incognito to Saturday Vanguard said the entire population fled the community on March 14, following the bombardment, first by soldiers who killed some inhabitants, and second by gunmen, who killed both soldiers and villagers at the waterside.
They said they could not take stock of their dead, given the circumstances that led to their fleeing the community, and the Army commandeered the town and denied them access to their homeland since then.
According to them, while the Army refused the people entry to pick up their dead and bury them; the same military had collected its fallen personnel and interred them. It remained an allegation.
The community leaders said since the episode of March 14, the Army, which knew those who killed its personnel, and not the peasant farmers and anglers of Okuama was doing everything to rope in the villagers.
“Certainly, Okuama could not have buried weapons acquired with funds from oil bunkering as the Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, General Christopher Musa speculated because we are not an oil-producing community, no oil pipeline passes our community, and we are not involved in oil bunkering,” one leader said.
A 50-year-old mother of five, Vero Joseph, who spoke to Saturday Vanguard in the forest, where the residents were hiding, said, “Soldiers killed Magdalene, James, and John, they are the ones I could remember before running into this bush. We do not know those people who came in the boat to shoot our people and the soldiers.”
Another villager, Evelyn Edjekota, a 45-year-old mother of seven, who also spoke at the forest hideout, said, “The soldiers killed Eshedi, Teddy, and Ejomafuvwe.”
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