Okuama Crisis: House of Reps Committee begins probe, vows to deliver justice to all parties

By Ovasa Ogaga,

The House of Representatives Committee on Defence on Thursday began a public hearing into the circumstances surrounding the death of 17 Nigeria soldiers and the destruction of Okuama Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

The Hon. Babajimi Benson-led Committee disclosed while briefing journalists shortly after the public hearing at the Delta Government House Annexe, Edjeba, in Warri South Local Government Area of the state.

According to the Committee Chairman, Hon Benson, the committee in the course of it investigation has so far received 23 memorandums from different interests on the Okuama tragedy.

He said that the 10-man committee, comprising 10 members, including the member representing Ughelli North, Ughelli South, and Udu Federal Constituency in the House, Francis Ejiroghene Waive, is on a fact-finding mission to the state over the killing of 17 officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army and the burning down and destruction of Okuama following the March 14, 2024 ugly incident.

Hon. Benson said in order to get to the root of the crisis and ensure that all sides to the crisis is heard, the period for the collection of more memoranda has been extended to next week Friday in order to allow all aggrieved stakeholders,  to ventilate their positions.

Advocate.ng gathered that following military manhunt for Okuama people, residents of Okuama were afraid and couldn’t appear physically in public hearings for fear of arrest, however, a window was given for them to submit their  memoranda through the Clerk of the Committee, Hon. Musa Aliyu, who was also in attendance, before next Friday.

The Committee Chairman assured of the willingness of the House of Representatives to bring the Okuama crisis to a logical conclusion and ensure that justice is done to all parties and see that the villagers, who had fled their ancestral homes, could return to a better, reconstructed home.

We’ve assured you all, we have assured the Governor that we have the House of Representatives full backing to ensure that this matter, we review both sides and will come to a logical conclusion and we put a closure to it.

“That’s why we are asking them to send in a memorandum and they’ve complied with that. We’ve also given a week. The memorandum receipt will end Friday next week.

“We are also telling them if you don’t want to show up, please send us documents that we would be able to act on so we can come to a logical conclusion. Ours is to look at both sides and be able to reduce an upper recommendation so that no party is embarrassed or victimized.

“They are going to submit it to the clerk and from there we will treat it. If there is any reason for us to visit or do otherwise, we are ready. We’ve dedicated our time to ensuring that justice is done and justice is also seen to be done.

“And to also ensure that this matter is brought to a logical conclusion whereby the people can easily go back to their source of livelihood and to their various homes and also foster a building process so that that place would be better now than they left it.”

While speaking on why the committee had not visited Okuama to personally see things for themselves, Hon. Benson noted, “We need to first be fully armed with what is going on. That is why we are soliciting for memoranda. We’ve gotten a couple. The activity of the committee has not ended.

“We are still going to visit the locals in quote, we are still going to invite the military to give us an account of what happened, that is why we said we are going to listen to both sides of the divide. We definitely have to visit the locals but we need to be armed with information from the people where the carnage took place. It is after that we will visit the locals.”