A former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor said an independent probe of the gruesome killing of 17 military personnel in Okuama community in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State will indict some Very Important Personalities (VIPs).
Ejiofor stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
He, however, faulted the decision to deploy a lieutenant colonel, two majors, one captain, and 13 other military personnel to settle a land dispute.
He said, “The federal or state government should set up this or harmonise: the state government brings representatives, the federal government brings representatives to form a very high-powered;
“Independent investigation that will come up with an objective report of what happened because, as it is now, people are scampering, some people that might be indicted in this investigation;
“Because of a lieutenant colonel, two majors cannot, on their own, just move out on a peacekeeping mission in a community. There is so much to this incident that must be found out,” he said.
Ejiofor said the Nigerian Army is an interested party in the matter and should not probe the grievous incident.
The former director urged the Federal Government and the Delta State Government to set up a “high-powered, independent investigation” to unravel the circumstances behind the deployment of 17 military personnel.
“The military is a party interested; they cannot undertake such an investigation. By now, the federal government or the state government must have set up an investigative panel to look into this matter because time is running out. We need to get to the root of this matter to know what really happened,” he said.
Ejiofor condemned the killing of the soldiers, said, “we have lost our values as human beings, no longer respected for our lives. This is a very tragic incident for me; I can’t comprehend it anymore.
“With the gruesome murder of those military personnel, looking at their mutilated bodies, we’ve lost our values as a people. I still can’t come to terms with that, but the military too, out of emotions, has taken a pound of flesh on them by razing down the community, even though they said they didn’t,” he said.
The security expert said that though the military denied burning down the community, reprisals are usual for the military.
Ejiofor said, “Despite the denial by the military, it’s usual with them for such reprisal attacks. They will continue to say they did not, but then, who razed the community?
“Nobody knows the number of casualties, but we can see from videos, that the place burning up to the extent that the governor had no access to the place, nobody had access to the community. That’s going too far.
“We sympathised with the military; Nigerians are mourning that our military men were killed, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
“It follows the trend that each time a military man is killed, he goes for reprisal. As much as we discourage people from taking laws into their own hands, because they are our symbols of authority, the military should not also go beyond the mandate of burning the place.”
The ex-DSS director advised that, for future operations, the military should involve the police and DSS operatives in such civilian assignments.
He said, “If there is peacekeeping, two parties must be involved; people from the two communities must be involved, and a neutral ground will be taken, possibly the local government headquarters, if you are talking of peace initiative.
“And then, why must the military? In fact, the military exposes itself to harm’s way. In fact, the military exposes itself to harm’s way. If the police, the SSS, and the military were involved in this (operation), I don’t think we would have seen this kind of incident. We are not justifying the killing, but it’s a lesson for all of us, for the military.
“You don’t blame the military too much because they have been so involved in military matters that the military will now go for peace initiatives without civil authorities. I still don’t get it. An investigation will prove who razed the community. Let us look at an independent body of inquiry.”