Soldiers’ Killings: Governor Dickson Warns Militants Against Another Massacre

 

The Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson,
has warned militants in the state against igniting a
repeat of the Odi massacre experience. The warning
came following rising spate of violent attacks and
killings of security operatives by men of militia
groups in the Niger- Delta region, This warning,
which was contained in a statement issued yesterday by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, was in response to the killing of four security personnel in Nembe Creek and three Naval personnel in Nembe and Foropa community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state and other parts of the Niger- Delta region.

It would be recalled that on November 20, 1999, men of the Nigerian military had pounced on the
predominantly Ijaw town of Odi in the state, killing
more than 100 innocent people and burning all the
houses in the town with the exception of a bank, a
church and a health centre.

The attack on the town was a revenge over the 12
members of the Nigerian police, who were murdered by a gang near Odi between November 4 and 15, 1999. In a similar development, the last few days had witnessed the killings of security operatives on official duties in both Bayelsa and Rivers States.

But Dicskon, according to the statement, summoned
community leaders and other stakeholders in the
state; warning them to check the activities of the
youths in their domains. According to Dickson, the
unwarranted attacks and killings of the nation’s
security personnel were putting the state and the
region in bad light and setting a stage for a repeat of the ugly Odi massacre.

He called on the perpetrators of the dastardly killings and their collaborators to stop it with immediate effect. He said: “Terrorism does not favour peace, neither can democracy express itself through violence”

The governor’s condemnation came on the heels of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s order to the military to go on a manhunt for the perpetrators and clamp down all security threats in the Niger Delta region.

Dickson stated that the killings were also putting the
innocent people in the state and the Niger Delta
region in danger. He stressed that the government of Bayelsa State did not want a replay of the Odi
massacre in 1999, during the administration of ex-
President Olusegun Obasanjo, where only the
innocent people suffered the brunt of the military
invasion,.

Dickson, however, said that the government was
already working in concert with the security agents to bring the culprits to book and forestall any future occurrences.