A survivor in the deadly attack that left 17 soldiers dead in Okuama community in Delta State has narrated how a priestess and a priest used ‘Juju’, (black magic) to prevent soldiers guns from firing when they came under gun attack.
The survivor who was one of the drivers of the speedboats hired by the military at the Gbaregolor community waterside said that soldiers hired some speedboats that conveyed them to Okuama community to negotiate the release of a youth allegedly abducted by Okuama youths.
According to him, failure of the community to release Okoloba youth prompted the soldiers to insist that the chairman of the community must follow them.
“He refused to go with the soldiers. They forced him towards the waterfront to board their boat when rains of bullets started coming from all directions.”
Before that incident, the driver said: “While waiting at the waterfront, an old woman in pure water attire came out of the community and stared at us, making some incantations, and went back to the community. Within a few minutes, an old man with similar attire came to the same spot, gazed at us, and performed the same way as the old woman.”
Not long after this scenario, the commander and his men started coming to the shore with the community chairman. At that moment, I made ready to start my engine just like my colleagues, but the engines refused to start, and efforts made to start the engines were to no avail at this point, I realized that the problem had come when I saw the performance of the old woman and the man.
”As the bullets started coming, the soldiers tried to respond, but none of their guns answered, and immediately I dived into the river. But suddenly, one of the engines started, some soldiers jumped into it, and the driver sped out of the community and carried me from the river.
”I do not know what he did to start his engine. Two of the soldiers in the boat sustained severe bullet wounds and were taken to the Bomadi General Hospital. The information then was that the JTF commander and one other officer were held hostage”.
”The following day, soldiers were mobilized from Agbarho to Okuama to negotiate and secure the release of the commander and others reported to have been held hostage.”
According to an inside source, who partook in the reinforcement that led to the burning of houses at Okuama, and who was discussing the operation with his colleagues, the soldiers who were mobilized from Agbarho were deceived and killed.
”The remobilized soldiers from Agbarho led by the Lieutenant Colonial, upon reaching Okuama, told the community folk that they were coming for peace talk. They said the soldiers should drop their weapons if they came for peace talks.
”The commanding officer asked his men to drop their weapons, and as they did so, the community youths took the weapons away from all of them. Then, suddenly the youths descended on them by butchering them from all angles.”
Narrating how he was privy to this gruesome murder, the soldier said: “As we were burning houses in the community, somebody ran out of one of the houses on fire, and I threatened to shoot if he ran. He hesitated a while and surrendered. So, we interrogated him as to why he remained in the village while all the others had fled.”
”His reply was odd and awkward. He answered by saying, it could be the blood on his head. Then, when he was asked how many he had killed? He said 46 and at this moment, a colleague cocked his gun and wanted to shoot him in anger, but others calmed him down, telling him that he was a possible source of hidden information.
”We discovered six shrines in the community in the process of burning the houses, which are stained with blood. We also burned them but one of the shrines refused to burn. It was one Hausa soldier who did what he did to set it ablaze.
”The culprit, after his confessions, also led us to discover hidden corpses under the jetty at the community waterfront. He has already been flown to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja”.
What Really Transpired
Before the March 14 slaughter, the day earlier, Wednesday, March 13, a young man from Okoloba, Mr. Anthony Aboh, was taken hostage by armed youths in Okuama community. His brother, a former supervisory councilor, Bomadi local government council, immediately reported the matter to the 181 Amphibious Battalion of the military Joint Task Force, Bomadi.
Upon the report, the commander mobilized his men on a rescue mission to Okuama. The former councilor was also asked to join them on the mission.
Saturday Vanguard learned that when the military team arrived at Okuama, they asked for the community chairman who the community earlier said had gone to the farm. But after much insistence to see him, he surfaced and took the military men to the community hall.
Discussions to free the hostage were deadlocked, and the commander insisted the community chairman must go with them to Bomadi since they refused to produce the hostage, who they later found dead.