The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has blamed the Federal Government for the confidence some youths in Delta State had to attack and kill some soldiers in their community who were on their way to carry out a peace mission between Okuama and Okoloba communities.
According to Kachikwu, the failure of the government to deal with previous attacks on security operatives and the government’s inability to implement laws against violence encouraged the people to kill military officers without fear of punishment.
Speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Monday, the ADC candidate urged the government to ensure the current crop of offenders does not go unpunished.
He said, “The government has failed in allowing people like this to continue to metamorphose in society. We see what’s happening in Haiti where gang lords are now taking over the country.
“And that’s how we watch gang lords continue to emerge in Nigeria, take over the space, and work with politicians to rig elections, and then now are so powerful as to kill Nigerian soldiers and decapitate their bodies. This is totally unacceptable, I believe that everything should be done to bring these people to justice.”
Kachikwu argued that the kidnappings and killings in the Okuama community had become repeated occurrences, and the state governments had failed to take decisive action against it.
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He said, “Beyond that killing, what we now see is a recurring decimal in the atrocities going on in Delta state and parts of Bayelsa, where a particular individual is known to be killing soldiers, and this has gone on for years.
“The state governments have failed successively in dealing with this issue because there is always a political undertone to this. Currently, we are talking about two communities- one Ijaw, one Urhobo.
“In times past, you will always have people from different communities who have people in various arms of government, and because of that, they protect their kit and kin. And when people are killed, nothing is done, so people become emboldened.
“There are several reports, several commissions of inquiry over the last couple of decades over this same issue. And as long as they’re not implemented, as long as people believe it’s okay to kill, to maim people and nothing happens to them, then they’ll continue doing this.
“Three months after this, all has quietened down and then we move on. The community that has been decimated, they are paying its price, suffering in silence. The families of soldiers who have died, they are there suffering in silence, and we continue till this happens again.”
On how to solve the insecurity problem and the attack on the military, Kachikwu said the President must rise up to the occasion and make it known that such attacks would be met with stiff punishments for the perpetrators.
“We must ensure that we have a government that says Nigeria is not a place where human lives are taken and no price is paid.
“The C.-in-C. (Commander-in-Chief) of this country must be one that says- anytime you touch my military, I will avenge, I will go after you. But not only my military, anytime any Nigerian life is lost, I will ensure that a price is paid. I will go to the very end to ensure that a price is paid, that those people are brought to book.”
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