Opinion: Army’s Reason for Invasion of Ogoniland is Ridiculous, By Fegalo Nsuke
About two weeks ago, February 22 and 23, Ogoniland was bleeding from military bullets. An estimated 42 persons had been killed by the Nigerian Army in a raids the authorities claimed were targeted at former militant, Solomon Ndigbara. We are yet to see any meaningful action on the part of the authorities regarding a probe withing the army or any disciplinary action taken against the soldiers responsible for these killings.
Speaking this week before the senate and house committees probing the killings, Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai said the raid was justified by the alleged burial of its security informant in the state by a cult group known as Island Cult.
Buratai’s statement corroborates Senator Magnus Abe’s earlier allegation of the kidnap of his loyalist, Pabby Koryene shortly after the raid on Yeghe and the other Ogoni communities.
But there are reasons to believe the raid on Yeghe and the other Ogoni communities were for March 19 – the day scheduled for the parliamentary re-run elections in Rivers State. The heavy media propaganda to justify the raid has not helped matters as it continues to reveal and make clearer, a correlation between the raid and the forth-coming parliamentary elections. Infact. politicians of the ruling party’s extraction have been more defensive of the raid than the Army itself while the opposition party had been very critical of the actions. I have in an earlier publication dealt with the issue of who the army raid on Yeghe targeted (seehttp://www.ogoninews.com/columnists/96-fegalo-nsuke/700-military-invasion-of-ogoniland-matters-arising).
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