After the 17 troops were slain in the Okuama hamlet, a former military officer named Brigadier General John Sura has said that the military changed from peace assistance to peace enforcement operations because they wanted to recover the dead. He maintained that the corpses of the dead soldiers might not be recovered by negotiating alone.
Drawing on his experience in Sudan, he explained that when peace support efforts fail, the next step often involves peace enforcement measures. The Nigerian Army revealed few days ago that they had recovered the decomposing hearts of some of the 181 Amphibious Battalion troops. However, the military is still in search of some of the bodies of the slain soldiers who were killed during the Okuama and Okoloba community crisis.
He said in an interview with Tribune, ”When the military was going to that community, they did not prepare for such a thing; it was just a peace enforcement. It was a peace support operation and that was why they didn’t act until it degenerated. After the soldiers were killed, the next thing is to retrieve the dead bodies.
This is where police enforcement comes in because under the UN Charter and African Union. When some of us were in Sudan at a particular time, when you are trying to create peace support and it’s not forthcoming, you are forced to enact the next level, which is peace enforcement. And that was what happened when the GOC of 6 divisions and others resorted to do whatever would bring peace to the land. So recovering the bodies of the office cannot be done through negotiation, you may not get what you are expecting from that end.”
