By Kayode Oyero

Major General Cecil Esekhaigbe (retd) says 16 military personnel who were gruesomely murdered last Thursday in the Okuama community of Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State were ambushed by residents of the community.

The retired Army general, who was a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief breakfast show on Monday, said the soldiers were not in the coastal community with an intention to fight but to find out why their colleagues who were on peace-keeping mission to the village were held hostage.

General Esekhaigbe said had the soldiers gone to Okuama prepared, not one of them would have been killed.

The slain military personnel responded to a distress call after the communal crisis between the Okuama and Okoloba communities, both in Delta State, before they were killed on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

The beheaded corpses of the slain soldiers were later recovered from a neigbouring rivers, while the stomachs and hearts of others were ripped off.

President Bola Tinubu, the Senate, the host Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, as well as civil society organisations have condemned the gruesome murder of the soldiers and called for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.

However, over the weekend, some angry soldiers patrolling the creeks allegedly razed the village after their colleagues were killed, even as residents of the coastal community fled to neighboring Ughelli.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, who condemned the killing of the soldiers, has since faulted the military’s reprisal, saying innocent people cannot be attacked, even in a war situation.

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