After killing of 16 soldiers, Delta community razed

After gruesome killing of 16 soldiers, Delta community razed

Barely 24 hours after 16 soldiers including a lieutenant colonel, two majors and a captain were murdered by irate youths of Okuama community in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, the entire place has been razed.

Channels Television in a report says some angry soldiers may have perpetrated the act after their colleagues were brutally killed.

It was not immediately clear if inhabitants of the community were caught in the reprisal attack.

It was however learnt that most residents of the coastal community had fled to neighboring Ughelli much earlier.

Already, a manhunt for the killers is ongoing and some arrests have been made by the soldiers led by the General Officer Commanding 6 division Nigerian Army, Major General Jamal Abdussalam.

A total of 14 lifeless bodies of killed soldiers were in the early hours of Saturday recovered by soldiers of the joint task force under the supervision of the General Officer Commanding 6 division Nigerian Army, Major General Jamal Abdussalam, at Okuama community.

Some of the recovered corpses were said to have been beheaded, while the stomachs and hearts of others were ripped off.

At the NDDC jetty in the coastal Delta community, the bodies of the commanding officer and the two killed majors were seen floating by the river bank as others were separated on land.

Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, has ordered a probe into the tragic killing of four senior officers and 12 soldiers.

It was gathered that the slain military personnel responded to a distress call after the communal crisis between the Okuama and Okoloba communities, both in Delta State, before they were killed on Thursday, March 14.

Confirming the incident in a statement on Saturday, the Acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, said the victims were surrounded by some community youths when troops of the 181 Amphibious Battalion were on a peace mission in the Bomadi Local Government Area of the state.