(More Story from CDS’s interaction with Arise Television)
By Austin Ogwuda
THE Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa has called on other suspects declared wanted over their alleged involvement in the Okuama saga to emulate the traditional ruler of Ewu kingdom, who voluntarily surrendered self.
Musa spoke as a guest at the popular Arise Television programme tagged ‘The Morning Show’ on Wednesday morning anchored by a seasoned Journalist, Ruben Abati and co.
His words, “The traditional ruler that was declared wanted and willingly submitted himself to the police for investigation, should be commended, and we expect others that have been declared wanted to equally surrender on their own accord.
“We will investigate them and handle the matter fairly. We are not irresponsible Military that will go about killing people, but the truth is that if they have not tempered with our own gallant soldiers, we would not have come out in the first place”.
He called on Nigerians to support the Military in their effort to arrest those involved in the brutal killing of the Soldiers at Okuama on that fateful day.
The CDS identified one Endurance Amagbein as the mastermind of the killing of the officers and soldiers, saying that “The killing of the 17 soldiers was premeditated because a group of criminals, cultists, militants, decided to take laws into their hands”.
“He (Endurance) is actually the mastermind. He is the one who actually planned and executed this with his boys. And you know they have a lot of issues of cultism within the general area. And again, like I always say, because they were making money illegally, they feel that they are above board, they have so much money that they can do whatever and they buy whoever it is that they can.
“But that is one mistake they made. I think they have tried the wrong guys. And this time around, the full weight of the law is coming after him and his own team.
“They killed the Commanding Officer and his team while on a peace keeping mission that is unacceptable. We are happy that the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces has given us his mandate to arrest the killers”, he stated.
He further told the television audience that the Military was mindful of the people’s human right otherwise they could have “levelled” the entire Okuama community.
Hear him, “the Military has the mandate to effect arrest in Okuama community and is doing so as a team in conjunction with a taskforce.
“The operation of the taskforce is regulated, otherwise it could have been a situation where we would have brought down the entire community flat. We did not go to that level, because we knew that not all the community members were involved in the killing of the soldiers”.
Credit: This Day