Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday, weighed in on the controversy surrounding the killing of seventeen soldiers at Okuama in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State last week Thursday.
The number three citizen disclosed that those who killed the officers and men of the 181 Amphibious Battalion were outsiders.
According to him, the assailants were not from within the Niger Delta geo-political zone of the country or even from Nigeria.
He made the assertion during a debate on two merged motions by All Progressives Congress Senators, Abdulaziz Yar’Adua (Katsina Central) and Edeh Dafinone (Delta Central) .
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Akpabio noted that the youths who murdered the soldiers might be mercenaries, stressing that the country is not at war.
“We condemn this dastardly act. It portends danger for the entire society. Every single culprit involved must be brought out to face the full wrath of the law.
“I don’t think they are from the Niger Delta, they may be mercenaries” he said.
The Senate has however begun probe into the killings as it has asked its Committee on Defence, Army, Navy and Air force to liaise with the Military authorities to get more information on the remote and immediate cause of what it described as “dastardly act.”
The Federal Government was also charged to apprehend those behind the killing of the military personnel and bring them to book, just as it observed a minute silence in the honour of this killed.
The upper legislative chamber also underscored the need to recruit more policemen so that the military will not be used for civil matters.
The Senate however turned down a request to observe a minute silence or to commiserate with the families of innocent civilians killed in the process, saying that their numbers are still unknown.
The Senate also resolved that families of the murdered soldiers should be compensated immediately as moved by Jibrin Barau, the Deputy Senate President.
