The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, on Sunday, condemned the recent killing of some soldiers in Delta State.
His reaction comes after a late Saturday report that operatives of the Joint Task Force recovered 15 bodies of soldiers under the supervision of the General Officer Commanding 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen. Jamal Abdussalam, at the Okuama community, Delta State.
This was due to a communal land dispute between two neighbouring communities – Okoloba and Okuama, dating back to January 27, 2024.
In a series of tweets via his X handle, Obi recalled that while people were still recovering from the shock of the death of some policemen, the report of the Army personnel deaths was received.
His tweet read, “Just last week, several policemen were reportedly killed while on duty in Delta State. We were still recovering from the shock over such a sad occurrence when yesterday, we were besieged with the gory reports of the killing of 22 officers and men of the Nigerian Army, also in Delta State.
“In both sad incidents, the dead security personnel were on active duties of securing and keeping peace within our communities, state and country before their unfortunate end, even by the people they were trying to help.”
He labelled the killing as “barbaric and totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated by Nigerians and any sane society. For a nation already combatting a high level of insecurity, the killing of our security personnel who put their lives on the line for the security of the nation will be too much of a burden to bear.”
Obi noted that the cases of kidnappings, killings and other violent crimes have continued to degenerate the security level in the country.
