According to some reports, the military intends to construct barracks in Okuama in the wake of the deaths of 17 troops who were conducting a peacekeeping operation there.
Speaking during an interview with Punch on Sunday, Dafinone said he does not think that building a military barracks in Okuama community is a good decision.
He said that Okuama community has been an ancestral home to people for many years, and that converting it to a barracks is like ethnic cleansing. He urged the military to reconsider it if actually they are having such a plan.
He said, “I don’t think that will be a good decision. Don’t forget that that community has been the ancestral home of a people for hundreds of years now. When you convert a people’s ancestral home to a military barracks overnight, you have in one fell swoop eclipsed the ancestry of those people; it is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. The military authority should rethink if truly they have muted the idea.”
The lawmaker said that what happened in Okuama community was hard for him to process, because he couldn’t understand how such high-ranking military officers were taken out like that in one fell swoop by some militants or hoodlums.
Dafinone commiserated with the Nigerian Army and the families of the slain soldiers, and begged the army to temper justice with mercy and not allow their emotions to take a better part of their judgement. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
