By 
By Abiodun OBA
No fewer than eight persons (seven men and one woman) have been declared wanted by the Nigerian Army over the killing of 17 soldiers in the Okuama community in Delta state.
The Nigerian Army on its official X account on Thursday declared the following people wanted:
The newly-installed Ovie of Ewu-Urhobo Kingdom in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, Clement Ikolo, Urhukpe 1.
Okuama is one of the many communities under the Ewu-Urhobo Kingdom where the wanted Ikolo is the traditional ruler.
Also declared wanted is the President-General of Ewu communities and renowned university lecturer, Prof Arthur Ekpekpo.
Also, on the list of those declared wanted is a suspected militant leader, Akevwru Daniel Omotegbono, aka Amagbein.
Soldiers had, a few days after the incident, tracked him to the Igbomoturu community in the Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State but missed him as he was believed to have gone underground.
On the list also are Atata Malaw David and Sinclair Oliki, who are suspected to be part of the Amagbein gang.
Others are Andaowei Dennis Bakriri and Igoli Ebi, who is supposedly the mother of one of the wanted persons as well as Reuben Baru, a young man, who made a viral video recently, narrating why the soldiers were killed.
Recall, the suspected mastermind of the bloodbath, a militant leader, and his gang members, who are currently on the run, seem to have their operational stamping ground at Igbomotoru, a riverside community in the Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
However, the Nigerian Army, which has spread its dragnet for the fleeing suspects, went as far as Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, to pick up three persons, last Tuesday, in connection with the killing of the soldiers.
So far, the demanding search for the killers of the soldiers in the quiet Okuama has spread to the creeks, hideouts, and communities in Delta State, Bayelsa, and Rivers states, and is likely to extend to other states in the Niger-Delta, and outside the region if need be, according to sources.
Many believe the killing of the soldiers was beyond the land dispute between Okuama and Okoloba in the Bomadi local government area, as insiders point to divergences on oil bunkering.
Lt. Col Ali was reportedly bent on stopping oil thieves in his operational area and had made appreciable inroads. There was suspicion that his killing with other military personnel could be a setup.
The Chief of the Defense Staff, CDS, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, who had given his troops marching orders to track down the killers, alluded to this notion.
Musa said: “I know him, the C.O himself, Lt. Col. Ali. Because of recent, we emphasized that we want oil production in Nigeria to increase so that we will be able to have enough foreign exchange for things to go down. Because we all know the challenges we are facing.
“And so, he insisted that all illegal activities within his general area must stop. He directed all the troops and they were stopping illegal bunkering, and then these are the people benefiting from it. And so, when this issue came up, it became an opportunity for them to do away with him, which is exactly what happened.
“We know who did it, we are following up on him, and it is just a matter of time, we are sure we are going to get him. They took away our arms, we must get those arms back, and we must get these guys so that they would be prosecuted accordingly.”
From our findings, the countryside people of Okuama are not sophisticated enough to carry out this kind of attack on military officers.
And from the CDS declaration that “we know who did it..,” he confirmed that the premeditated killing was connected to oil bunkering, so why did the troops go after helpless Okuama women and children, and even razed the community?
However, the Army, on Friday, admitted knowledge of the viral video by a militant leader who confessed to participating in killing the 16 soldiers.
It noted: “The video among other things helps to narrow investigation to persons of interest and their cohorts.
“Accordingly, the state governments and host communities of these personalities are required to assist investigation in flushing out these culprits.
“There can be no hiding place for perpetrators of such dastardly act against the nation. This is a clarion call to duty by members of those communities and the state governments”.
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