Okoi Obono-Obla who is a former presidential aide, has openly charged the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff to do his best to call his rampaging soldiers to order.
It had been reported that some soldiers who were drafted from Edor Barrack in Ikom, central Cross River State, to quell the communal skirmish between Nkor people of Yakurr LGA and Onyadama community in Abi LGA over the weekend had reportedly shot some live bullets at villagers and set houses ablaze.
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The Nko youths were reported to have disarmed and killed some of soldiers, including a Colonel who had led the team to pacify the two communities on Saturday. Soldiers are presently reported to have embarked on a house-to-house search for arms while arresting many more people.
In his statement, Obono-Obla said, “The army’s high command must immediately call these soldiers to order.
“The reprisal attack by soldiers against the Nko community leaves a sour taste in the mouth. These reprisal attacks by law enforcement agencies on innocent villagers are intolerable and wicked.
“The perpetrators of this senseless and mindless violence must immediately be arrested and brought to justice.”
He condemned the spate of senseless violence and said the Nko community which has been under a state of siege resulting in the killings of innocent people and the burning of some of their residential houses by the army units posted to the area to maintain the peace.
He had also blamed the two Chairmen of Yakurr and Abi LGAs as well as the state government for their alleged lukewarm attitude to the spates of inter-communal violence that have become a recurring decimal in the state
The presidential aide stressed that if the authorities were alive to their responsibilities, they would have averted the crisis before it escalated.