The Nigerian army have denied media report on Friday that its personnel were shooting sporadically in a community in Abia State in the southeast, while going from house to house to shoot community persons.
WHAT WE KNOW
The Nigerian army on Saturday denied media report alleging that it’s men from the 14th Brigade were on Friday evening engaged in a sporadic shooting at Ohafia Abia State.
The army spokesman, Acting Assistant Director, Army Public Relations Officer, Lieutenant Innocent Omale has said the reported shooting at Ebe, Ohafia, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State, happened when his men coming back from patrol were attacked by bad boys.
Reacting to the shooting, which caused panic in the community, the lieutenant wondered how his men who are not mad would have started shooting sporadically without a cause.
Lieutenant Omale however, assured that the situation is under control now.
NOTABLE QUOTES
In reaction to the alleged shooting, Lieutenant Innocent Omale said:
“Our people were going out on patrol and on their way back, these bad boys saw them and started shooting at them,”
“Are our men mad that they will just start shooting like that?”
BACKGROUND
Recall that there was media report on Friday that men of the Nigerian army from 14th Brigade were shooting sporadically in Ebe, Ohafia in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.
Reports also claimed the soldiers were searching house to house within the community for persons of interest to them.
Recall also that in recent times, communities in the South East have witnessed invasion by military personnel purportedly in search of the so-called unknown gunmen and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Human Rights organisations such as Amnesty international Nigeria have severally accused the Nigerian Army of extrajudicial killings in the South East.
COMMENTARY
Shooting in a civilian community is condemnable as it has a possibility of hitting innocent citizens and creating bad blood between security agencies and the populace.
The security agencies should employ intelligence in flushing out criminal elements in the society rather than been reactionary.
Intelligence gathering can help the agencies take out these elements in their hide out unawares, thereby reducing collateral damage amongst innocent citizens whom the state owns a duty to protect.
That is if it is actually true that the soldiers accused of shooting sporadically around the community were actually responding to fires from the so-called “bad boys” as claimed by the army spokesperson.
The army is known to be engaging in extrajudicial killings, abductions and harassment of innocent youths in the southeast since the advent of the unknown gunmen saga in the region.
Clariform calls on the international community to wed into the killings in the region by the Nigerian army and their criminal associates in the southeast region, while also calling on the elders in the southeast to properly guide their wards against acts of criminality.
