Ovie of Umiaghwa Abraka Kingdom in Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State, HRM (AVM) Lucky Ochuko Ararile (rtd.), has described the killing of 17 soldiers in Okuama Community as an unfortunate situation, regrettable and condemnable....CONTINUE READING
HRM Ararile said this during his address at First Baptist Church, Oria, to thank God, as he clocked 12 years on the throne, just as he called on President Bola Tinubu to order soldiers stationed in the community to vacate the area.
Adding: ‘Residents need to return back and try to get their lives back and.start rebuilding,” saying the destruction that was carried out in Okuama after the murder of the military men was also regrettable too.
He said that the way the soldiers were killed was not in tandem with the culture of Urhobo and other ethnic groups in the Niger Delta.
“No ethnic group in the Niger Delta has it as a culture to desecrate the bodies of the dead. We don’t chop off people’s heads, remove their hearts or dismember it,” he opined.
The traditional ruler said the mode of the killings was Boko Haram-like.
Meanwhile, he said to avoid such incidents, security operatives must stick to their roles.
“In Nigeria, the army does the job of the police, NSCDC does the job of everyone else. The only jobs that others cannot do is that of the Airforce because they cannot fly planes,” he averred.
The outspoken monarch who noted that even amongst the same security outfits, some persons are not allowed to do their jobs, cited instances when cases had to be moved from Abraka under the DPO to Abuja.
In his words: “In a murder case moved out of Abraka to Abuja, how do you move witnesses there too during a police investigation? If the DPO does not have what it takes to complete such an investigation, Abuja should give him the needed backing and not move cases out and in some cases release suspects.”
On Tinubu’s performance so far, he said the President was on track.
His words: “The president did well by setting up a powerful Economic Team. This means that he has his hands on the table, knows the problems and has good ideas to deal with issues.”
He called on Nigerians to be patient with him and support the federal government, as well as the state government.
“Some may think that I have collected ‘brown envelope’ to say these things. Those that know me are aware that no one can influence what I say because I say it the way it should be said,” he averred.
During the NRA bush war, Gen David Sejusa (then Tinyefunza) spent 7 months in detention (endaaki) largely because of his assertiveness each time he felt the Chairman High Command Gen YK Museveni had acted inappropriately.
Towards the end of 1983, Obote’s UNLA commanders excelled on the battlefield and gained upper hand over Museveni‘s NRA rebels.And subsequently the High Command, which was the highest decision-making organ regarding military operations, decreed that in order to deepen concealment, all non-combatants women should leave the NRA camps and return to their respective homes.
This meant all male combatants who their girlfriends and concubines around had had to be deprived. The same was, however, controversially waived in favor of Salim Saleh and Pecos Kutesa whose Jovia and Dora were the only non-combatants permitted to stay.
Calling the directive unfair and unacceptable, Gen Tinyefunza mobilized colleagues, who were equally appalled as him, to vigorously oppose the new rules and even fail them. He had a girlfriend who had previously belonged to Afande Julius Aine and she was among those who had to leave under the new High Command directive.
Tinyefunza, who himself was a member of the High Command, asserted that this directive was draconian and synonymous with the ‘favorism and sidelining of colleagues’ that was being practiced by the HC Chairman Gen YK Museveni. He claimed that Gen Museveni was increasingly becoming a dictator and many fighters were consequently becoming disillusioned. He demanded equal application of rules and fair treatment for all combatants.
In the end, Tinyefunza (who has promised to erupt one of these days regarding the circumstances of his great friend Elly Tumwine‘s death) was summoned by Museveni and forced to apologize before junior officers and fighters for the mutinous atmosphere his protestations had incited in the NRA camps.
Luckily, Tinyefunza was joined by Henry Tumukunde, another belligerent officer, who was equally intrigued and fearlessly vowed to fight against injustices and favoritism within rebel NRA. Maj John Kazoora, himself an NRA bush war fighter with plenty of controversial views about Gen Museveni, says in his book that in a bid to effectively cripple Tinyefunza, a fire-breathing Museveni breached his own concealment rules (prohibiting day time movement of weapons) and came around with a Light Machine Gun (LMG) vowing to break David Tinyefunza‘s legs in order to overcome and circumvent his riotous conduct.
Museveni asserted that time had come for him, as the overall leader, to act by cracking the whip hard to be able to reverse and quell the impending rebellion that was threatening the existence of his rebel NRA force.
This was around September 1984 and Tinyefunza, who was still recovering from the gunshot wounds the UNLAs had inflicted on him during the battle of Katiti, was tried and found guilty of mutinous conduct. He was locked up in endaaki where he was to remain confined up to March 1985.
This severe sanctioning manifested how far YK Museveni, the High Command Chairman, was prepared to go to enforce discipline in his struggling guerrilla organization. Tinyefunza, who was subsequently treated by Dr. Kizza Besigye who had equally treated his predecessor Gen Saleh, went on to confront UNLA at Katiti in execution of an assignment the High Command Chairman had given him along with Julius Kihanda.
Museveni‘s instruction to Tinyefunza and Kihanda was clear: go and flush out the UNLA fighters who had provocatively camped so near the NRA headquarters after the poorly planned and commanded 21st February 1983 Bukalabi battle during which Gen Salim Saleh was fatally wounded.
Whereas Saleh was wounded in both arms, 11 NRA fighters succumbed to enemy fire.A Duetchwalle journalist, who Gen Museveni had brought from Germany to showcase and publicize the NRA progress, was also visiting the NRA camps during the Bukalabi fiasco. So, Tinyefunza and Kihanda had been tasked to hold forte and fill the vacuum as Saleh recuperated under the care of Dr. Kizza Besigye.
Maj Kazoora reveals that this wasn’t the only time the otherwise very effective NRA Commander Gen Salim Saleh was being wounded. That on another occasion, Gen Museveni’s brother endured self-inflicted wounds upon getting drunk and shooting his own leg.
Dr. Ronald Batta, the other NRA bush war doctor besides KB, treated him on that occasion. Saleh was put on trial and charged with attempting to murder a member of the High Command (actually himself). Kazoora, a compelled story teller, reminisces another incident when Gen Saleh returned to the camp smelling alcohol prompting his brother YK Museveni to grill him about the same.
“When the CHC (Museveni) asked him about the strange scent on his body, Saleh said he had rubbed himself with a traditional herb to treat scabies (which commonly afflicted NRA Combatants because of the conditions of the war) to which (Museveni sarcastically responded) kanihaano ogu (which means what a terrible herb),” Kazoora narrates in his bush war memoirs titled “Betrayed by My Leader.”
Gen Museveni is up to this day renowned for his intolerance towards leaders who engage in smoking and alcoholism. The self-disciplined veteran leader from Rwakitura describes such to be synonymous with reckless living.
