The Nigerian Army has accused the Okuama community of embarking on a media propaganda in the wake of the killing of 16 soldiers in the most gruesome manner on Thursday.
In a reaction to reports that the Army may have been embarking on a reprisal attack on the community after the killing of 12 soldiers, their Commanding Officer, two Majors and a Captain, all of 181 Amphibious Batallion who were responding to a communal clash between Okuama and Okoloba communities, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, the Director of Army Public Relations said the community has resulted to media propaganda and shenanigans rather than joining in the efforts to fish out the killers.
“This again is a clear indication that the murder of the troops was a communally orchestrated attack against legitimate forces”, Nwachukwu said.
He furthersaid: “The falsehood being peddled by these criminals and their cohorts to whip up sentiments and sway the public to coverup, endorse or support the outrageous criminal acts of their armed youth gang should be disregarded in its entirety, it is only a ridiculous attempt at justifying their crime, rather than turn in themselves to security agencies. There is no amount of propaganda that would arm-twist the narrative, they are complicit and must be ready to face the wrath of the law.”
Pictures emerged of buildings on fire in what was described as a reprisal act by military personnel on the community but Mr Nwachukwu categorically stated that the security forces will not resort to any such method in resolving the situation but added that the criminals will be identified and isolated for punishment.
“While law-abiding citizens are assured that there will be no reprisal on the part of the troops, we enjoin all to go about their normal activities, even as ongoing efforts are scaled up to positively identify and isolate the criminals to account for their atrocious deeds”, Nwachukwu said.
