For Mrs Catherine Okebata, Friday, October 8, 2021 started like any other day before it, with the peace and serenity of Umuokwu Village, untainted. From where she sat, she could hear clearly the banters of kinsmen and neighbours, as they went about their daily activities. Nothing prepared or forewarned her and many others in the community that a major disaster was in the offing.

Okebata’s life has been largely sedentary with the 73-yearold grandmother confined to a wheelchair since 2014 after she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed. Her sorry state was further compounded by the havoc of penultimate Friday. Okebata met a harsh fate in the hands of rampaging soldiers, the shock of which may stay with her till her dying days.

Not even her pitiable condition softened the soldiers of the Nigerian Army who stormed into her home in an unjust reprisal, carried her out of her wheelchair, dumped her in the nearby bush and set her house ablaze. Her daughter-in-law narrowly escaped death, as she jumped into the inferno, in desperation to retrieve her certificates and credentials. She sustained substantial burns. Neither Mrs. Okebata nor her daughter-in-law had any inkling as to why their home was burnt. The shock was benumbing. Similarly, Mr Vitus Nwadikwa, a retired driver with the Court of Appeal, had the same Friday morning left home for personal business at Aboh Mbaise in Imo State.

While still at Mbaise, Nwadikwa started receiving frantic calls from kinsmen back home that were fleeing the carnage; they warned him not to return, for his own safety. Nwadikwa later recounted: “I returned the next day, Saturday, to discover that three cars in my compound had been set ablaze, my house and that of my brother were also burnt down. “We couldn’t save anything from the houses. Now, all my sweat over the years have been turned to rubbles.” Nwadikwa, since retirement, relies only on his pension and sales from his farm produce to stay alive.

He also had no part or knowledge of why his property should be so brazenly burnt down by people he had not wronged in any way. Recall that three persons were reported dead in Izombe, comprising two soldiers and a civilian with more than 70 houses burnt down, following a disagreement between youths that were collecting tolls from oil bunkers and some soldiers. The root of the crisis A dependable community source who craved anonymity told our correspondent that the cause of the mayhem was traceable to underhand dealings associated with crude oil bunkering in the area.

He narrates that some youths in the communities unilaterally set up toll points they call ‘beats’ where they charge and collect tolls from ‘oil bunkers using their road to ply their illicit trade. According to him, Friday’s crisis erupted when local youths challenged some non-indigenous youths who were collecting tolls from oil bunkers, insisting that it was the right of locals to mount the toll points.

The source alleged that the former ‘beat’ owners, who were dislodged, now reported the alleged takeover of the ‘beat’ by some locals, to the soldiers said to have been originally posted to Addax Petroleum Company limited. The soldiers were said to have stormed the Umuokwu area of Izombe, and in the course of their disagreement with the local toll collectors, the soldiers shot one of them, Chukwunonso Iherue, who was popularly known as ‘Obere’.

The outrage that followed led to a counterattack by some of the youths around at the time, most of who were the deceased’s associates. Two of the soldiers who had fled to the palace of the traditional ruler for safety were later captured and lynched in defiance to the pleas of their 95- year old monarch, Eze Pius Muforo.

In reprisal, the Nigerian Army launched what appeared a ‘punitive expedition’ to Izombe community and according to the traditional ruler, Eze Pius Muforo, no fewer than 70 houses, 15 vehicles and 25 motorcycles were destroyed by soldiers in what would rightly be described as ‘impunity taken too far by the Nigerian Army. The traditional ruler of the community, Eze PiusMuforourgedthegovernmenttothoroughly investigate the root cause of the incident.

“I gathered that one youth and two soldiers were killed. It is very condemnable that human lives were lost in the incident and I sincerely sympathize with the families of the dead persons,” he said. The traditional ruler, who expressed concern over the increasing spate of oil bunkering in the area, urged the government to find urgent ways of stopping the rampant cases of oil bunkering in the area as well as finding ways to meaningfully engage the youths in the area and channel their youthful energies to worthwhile ventures. Another commentator, Mr Betrand Onyido, who claimed to be from a nearby community called Assa, maintained that soldiers were complicit in the illicit business of oil bunkering. “Similar incidents have happened in our area because soldiers are complicit and in some cases enablers of the oil bunkering business.

The soldiers in the Izombe case did not come to bust an oil bunker, they merely came to intimidate toll collectors at the behest of another gang of toll collectors who apparently may be making returns to the soldiers as is often the case. If not, what is the interest of soldiers in civil disputes? “Oil bunkering persists in our region today because we have top politicians, security agents, traditional rulers, community leaders and other stakeholders who by their actions and inactions have become enablers of the illicit business.

“So, let nobody be deceived by government rhetoric, at the root of the Izombe mayhem, is the clandestine business of crude oil bunkering.” Treaties and the Geneva Convention Nigeria is a signatory to several treaties and International Humanitarian Laws yet the use of brute and unbridled military force on civilian populations persist. The Operational Code of Conduct for the Nigerian Army, 1967, also captured in its articles, the rules and code of conduct that must govern a disciplined and efficient army.

Over the years, it has become a compelling fact that all those lofty ideals and provisions may have all gone with the wind. Whereas no fewer than 70 houses, 15 vehicles and 25 motorcycles were destroyed by soldiers in Izombe, the Article 4(f) of the 1967 Operational Code states that “No property, building etc, will be destroyed maliciously”, while Article 4(h) of the Operational Code stresses, “No looting of any kind (A good soldier will never loot)”, yet there were widespread allegations of looting in Izombe, of moveable assets and farm produce. According to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977, civilians and all persons not taking part in combat may under no circumstances be the object of attack and must be spared and protected. In specific terms, Article 51(3) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I, provides that civilians shall enjoyprotectionagainstthedangersarisingfrom military operations “unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.” From the bizarre stories emanating from Izombe, the military had no justification under the law to ‘burn down an entire village’ of innocent locals in reprisal for the actions of a few miscreants.

A victim, Mr Ifeanyichukwu Onyeukwu, who described the incident as a ‘huge tragedy’, said the community had never experienced such wholesale military assault. He added: “It was like a war situation. They came here with about 30 Hilux trucks and three armoured tanks. I hid in the bush watching from a distance how they flung explosives into our buildings. “Welosteverythingincludingclothes, phones, electrical appliances and money.

Particularly, my cousin lost over N500,000 cash while his wife also lost some amount belonging to a church group she belongs. “I am not part of the bunkering business in the area, but I am surprised that the problem caused by few individuals affected me and virtually everyone in the village.” The Code of Silence The silence from the state government and the military authorities following the carnage was as troubling as the dastardly act itself. While men, women and children were forced to flee their homes following the military onslaught on Izombe, no government agency uttered a word of comfort for the devastated community. No single relief material has been released by the government to the devastated community. The Imo State governor at the time of the incident was reportedly outside the state in faraway Abuja, while a section of his state burned. Commenting on the development, a varsity don and Public Relations expert, Dr. Walter Duru,described as shocking, the continued silence of Governor Hope Uzodinma, over the unfortunate incident in Izombe, Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, which rendered thousands of indigenes of the area homeless. Duru, in a statement made available to journalists in Owerri, argued that Governor Uzodinma’s decision to leave the people to their fate was a bad example in leadership, describing it as unfortunate. According to him: “On Friday, October 8, 2021, heavily armed men, suspected to be soldiers from the 34 Field Artillery Brigade, Obinze, invaded Umuokwu village in Izombe, Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, where they burnt over 70 houses, destroyed property worth billions of Naira and rendered thousands of people homeless. “72 hours after the unfortunate incident, no official of the Imo State government has said one word, not to talk of visiting the area. “The body language of the present administration in Imo State is very dangerous. It sends a strong signal that those in authority do not care a

boutthewellbeingof thecitizens, else, howcould a government be so insensitive that an incident of that magnitude occurred in the state and the government is not concerned? “What I mean is that soldiers invaded a community in your state, killed, maimed, destroyed property worth billions of Naira, set about seventy houses ablaze and three days after, the state government has shown no concern?” Continuing, Duru described the incident as unfortunate, even as he called for a Panel of Inquiry to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the mayhem while ensuring that those responsible for the dastardly act are made to face the law. Duru, an Assistant Professor of CommunicationandManaging ConsultantwithCommunication Agenda Nigeria Limited, a Public Relations firm, also called on the Federal Government and the international community to commission a probe into the incident. While commiserating with the affected community, he called on well-meaning Nigerians to support Umuokwu, Izombe community with relief materials. Similarly, after more than four days of the incident, the military was yet to comment or clarify the actions of its soldiers in Izombe. As at the last effort to reach the Army for reaction, the Army Public Relations Officer (APRO), Capt. Joseph Akubo declined comments. Meanwhile, three days after the mayhem, Uzodinma visited Izombe and bemoaned the tragedy unleashed on the people of Umuokwu, Aborshi in Izombe.

The governor promised that government will set up a Panel of Inquiry to look into the immediate and remote causes of the tragedy and make recommendations that will help stop further occurrences. Addressing journalists in the company of military and police authorities, the governor expressed dismay over the ugly incident and conspicuously did not hold the soldiers accountable for the destruction visited on innocent citizens of Izombe. He said: “The recent happenings have brought to the fore the earlier State’s directive that anybody, no matter how highly placed, who is in possession of any weapon should return it to the Security Agencies. “The government will go out to fully implement that directive and ensure that all bandits no matter where they are found are discovered and brought to book.” Uzodinma said it is no longer pardonable for the people or group of persons to take laws into their hands, regretting that banditry, violence, kidnapping and other forms of crime and criminalities have been on the increase since the jailbreak in Owerri that saw criminals melt into the streets. He commiserated with victims on both sides of the tragedy.