By CrossRiverWatch Admin
The clan head of Utrigom in Ukelle community of Yala local government area of Northern Cross River State, Ubiet Stephen Odom, has written the Ground Officer Commanding the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu over the complicity of a soldier; Corporal Emmanuel Ndubuisi in the killing of two natives of the community by the neighboring Izzi community in Ebonyi state.
The Izzi and Ukelle people have been at war for long and Ubiet Odom in his letter sighted by CrossRiverWatch said that Messrs. Emmanuel Akojo and Martins Ogana were sent by Cpl. Emmanuel Ndubuisi to Nduakparata when they were “brutally murdered” by the Izzis.
“The report has it that Cpl. Emmanuel Ndubuisi, of Ibo extraction deployed from Nkwagu military cantonment, Abakaliki, sent these two young men to the soldiers at Nduakparata, the purpose for which is not yet made known to me,” Ubiet Odom wrote.
He continued: “It is baffling to me, as to all Ukelle people, that a soldier who is based at Mfuma, South Ukelle, and has witnessed the ongoing war between my people(Ukelle) and Izzis, for the third month running, can decide to send Ukelle civilians, unarmed, without any form of protection to the enemy territory.
“What message would have been so important or urgent that he could not have connected his colleagues at Nduakparata by phone or go personally with one of the two army vehicles stationed at Ipollo or Mfuma?”
The monarch said that he was, “left with no other conclusion than cpl. Emmanuel Ndubuisi deliberately sent my men and alerted the enemy on the other side to kill them,” even as he described as an “uphill task,” his ability “to restrain my people from carrying out immediate reprisal attacks on the soldiers at Mfuma. Even now, there is still a great deal of agitation and restiveness by the women and youths of Ukelle.”
The clan head said that in order to restore his “confidence and the confidence of Ukelle people in the Nigerian Army,” the following prayers have to be answered.
“1. Immediate investigation should be carried out and Cpl. Emmanuel Ndubuisi appropriately disciplined.
“2.The deployment of soldiers from Nkwagu barracks, for now, should be restricted to Nduapkarata because they have betrayed the neutrality of the Nigerian Army by, again, showing open bias in favor of the Izzis (see letter headed “SERIOUS THREAT TO PEACE IN NTRIGOM CLAN OCCASSIONED BY THE ACTIVITIES OF SOLDIERS” addressed to the governor of Cross River State and copied to your office dated 4th July 2016) While soldiers from Ogoja barracks be deployed to man the military locations in South Ukelle.”
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