By EMMANUEL ARODOVWE

March 14, 2025 made it exactly one year to the day in which the little known community of Okuama in Urhobo land was suddenly shot to global consciousness over the strange death of 17 Nigerian soldiers who had controversially left their places of primary postings, to engage in what was later described as a peace mission, over an alleged land dispute between Okuama community of Urhobo and neighbouring Okoloba community of Ijaw. Casualties on the civilian side of the deadly confrontation was conspicuously underreported if not outrightly overlooked.

Within seven days of the incident, the army authorities in a retaliatory move unleashed mayhem on the community, with the elderly and children finding covers in bushes and thick forests, where many of them either starved to death or were killed by wild reptiles.

What followed was a levelling of the community such that no building, school or any other public facility was left standing except an Anglican Church established by the legendary Bishop Agori Iwe in the mid-20th century. One year after, that church building has remained the only mustering point and living quarters for hundreds of lucky survivors of that incident.

The Federal Government through President Bola Ahmed Tinubu commendably conducted an elaborate state funeral for its fallen officers, eulogising them for their courage, and promising to get to the root of the very controversial engagement and ensure that justice was done. The army thereafter arbitrarily declared persons they imagined to be suspects wanted. They included the king of Ewu Kingdom HRM Clement Ikolo and the President General, Professor Arthur Ekpokpo.

These publicly declared persons were taken into custody of the army at different times and have remained with them one year after. It took the intervention of some highly placed people in the society to effect the release of the king after about a month. The professor and many others have remained in custody till date. The inhumane torturous condition in which they now live, which include no access to phones, sleeping on bare floor over mosquito bites and starvation, is simply despicable. One of the victims of this arbitrary arrest, an octogenarian, unwilling or unable to manage the ordeal any further, died some months ago. Another elderly victim was on the verge of giving up the ghost when his frail body was released by his captors, as if to say to his people: “take away your dead for burial”. Somewhat, the old man has managed to survive but with his sanity now lost for ever.

But what is more troubling one year after is that the Okuama community has remained levelled and abandoned, without any serious commitment from the federal and state governments to rebuild and resettle the people. The Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, Camp set up by the state government as an immediate temporary response to the crisis has now been shut, leaving the people stranded. As it stands, a generation of Okuama children are now denied the right to education, having missed an academic year out of school with no hope in sight of resumption any time soon. Households have been callously torn to shreds as a result of this incident, and livelihoods are presently non-existent.

The Okuama incident one year after, forces afresh two different but related issues that border on justice and the fate of the minority in the amalgamated Nigerian state.

The matter of justice and fairness in Okuama

A major question arising from the Okuama incident is the identity of the commanding officer who ordered the intervention of the Nigerian Army officers over the community dispute and what factors necessitated that very extreme option. Every society, no matter how disorderly, has at the very least, designated roles and duties for different institutions and their personnel. It is not the duty of the army, anywhere in the world, Nigeria inclusive, to be the first point of call in a strictly civil matter, in which no gun has been shot, and not even a single case of physical combat has been recorded. To mobilise such an army of soldiers over a matter that even the local police were not yet aware of, raises suspicions that must be investigated thoroughly. One year after, despite promises by the president, no effort has been made to identify exactly what mission it was the officers went for, and on whose order.

It requires a matter of serious security threat bordering on territorial risk, for troops operating in locations far and disconnected from each other, to be rallied, to engage defenceless citizens with live ammunition.




https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/unanswered-questions-from-okuama-one-year-after/