Dr. Chidi Lloyd, the chairman of Emohua Local Government (LG) in Rivers state, embarrassed the Nigerian Army on Monday for the events of Saturday in the Rundele village, when vigilantes assaulted two soldiers and stole their uniforms and two firearms.
Following the recovery of the firearms and uniforms taken from the soldiers protecting the oil assets in the region on Monday, normalcy has returned to the Rivers village. This occurrence led many locals to leave Rundele out of fear of retaliation from the Nigerian Army.
Confirming recovery of the seized rifles, Emohua LG boss, Lloyd opined that the incident justified his observation that soldiers guarding oil assets in the area aid and abet the oil theft they are deployed to fight in the area, alleging that the intimidated soldiers were disarmed over disagreement on sharing of gratifications from oil thieves with the disbanded vigilantes group in the area.
“I’m ashamed that a civilian could disarm two Nigerian soldiers, collect their rifles, remove their uniforms and these are people trained to protect the territorial integrity of this country”, Lloyd said Monday in a media update on the saga.
Gift Ajuru, a Commander of OSPAC, a disbanded vigilante gang in the area, led the manhandling of the two soldiers who had their guns seized and their uniforms removed fateful Saturday in the community.
Again, Major Iweha Ikedichi, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 6 Division Nigerian Army, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, was yet to respond to the recovery of the rifles and uniforms at the time of filing this report.
