Troops arrive at Okene Market for confidence-building foot patrols, 4 May 2012
THE PUNCH
AUGUST 7, 2012
Gunmen on Monday invaded the Deeper
Life Church at Otite area in Okene,killing 16 worshippers and leaving many others wounded NAN reports.
The Commander of the Joint Military Task Force in Lokoja, Lt-Col. Gabriel
Olorunyomi, confirmed the incident. He said 15 worshippers died instantly in
the attack while another died on the way to the hospital. The commander said many injured persons were rushed to hospitals in Lokoja, a distance of 40 minutes driving on the road from Okene.
He said the casualty figure might rise
considering that some sustained heavy
injuries. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet.
Back to form? Or Another branch of BH?
Same Bastards !!
None of them involved in this killing shall escape death before the end of this week!
I think boko haram, has grown out of control of its initial political masterminds…… And they now have strong international terror and pro islamic links…. With good funding
Those responsible may seem ‘happy’ yet we know that they know they have no worth or value, they dread their eternal destiny and are willingly ignorant of how to be saved. The physical loss of these saintly worshipers maybe painful, their loss is a gross minus to earth’s sanity, the world’s light, the universe stability. Christians quit ye like and stand for the truth, soon this life will all be over……..
To bad this is happening in my ancestral home.
This attack clearly bears their signature. Always seeking for weak targets . I wonder how they got away because the town is on a serious lockdown with troops at almost every juncture.
I was in Okene and Lokoja last week and I saw some men of the Nigerian army special forces dressed in black t-shirt black flak jackets over camo pants with their face masked patrolling.
Well, you can see that they struck at Otite, a small community near Okene. These are just attacks meant to sow fear in the minds of innocent people.
On my last trip into Kogi last month, ALL vehicles coming from Okene and heading towards Lokoja and beyond were stopped at Osara and rigorously checked.
Before then in May, I shot the photo which you see at the top of this page. Troops were patrolling in pairs inside built-up areas.
So it is outlying communities such as these – Otite, Itakpe, Osara etc where they would love to strike and take innocent people unawares.
Targeting people on account of their ethnic origins, nationality or religious affiliation is genocide. These are hate crimes inspired by attempts at religious cleansing. What is happening here is plain and simple GENOCIDE. We hope that the ICC are taking notes because these terrorists, at some point, would have to account for their deeds. That would drive home the point that the world as a whole abhors their cowardly and detestable acts.
Most of those killed here were women and children.
I mean, this is like leaving Lokoja where there are troops willing to fight them and going into nearby communities such as Banda and Jamata.
Crazy..why civilians?
I believe the fg is too linient on boko haram,they are too laid back on the way they treat them,how many people did the us lose in the sept 11 attack wen they went to war against terrorism,boko haram has killed double of that number and now they are procuring rpg’s and we expect that death toll to double if care is not taken.
The fg should take the bulls by the horn and face up to the problem,whats the use of having an intelligence agency if nt for gathering info,or drones/uav’s if not for surveilance and also special forces if not for sabotage and taking or capturing top commanders of boko haram.
I believe the nigerian army should be allowed a little more freedom to handle the situation,just like was given to them in the camp 5 incident when they unleashed a fraction of a fraction of 1/10th of their force and anger on mend,it wasnt long before mend gave up,pls we need to resolve this case now or boko haram will start commiting genocide against christains on a massive scale soon which i suspect is the reason for the massive importation of arms by them,christains wont sit still for long no one would lose his,father/child to them and allow it go by,for now christains are taking it on faith but soon there shall be hell to pay for the deaths.
Fg pls take heed and stop this now or a religious war is imminent.
Is there anything about this situation that indicates the FG is using minimum force?
Simple things, cut the smuggling routes, strenuously prosecute corruption cases