Former Deputy Director of Defense Administration, Commodore Kunle Olawunmi has said the massacre of soldiers in Okuama community in Delta State is politically influenced as most of the militants and terrorists are affiliated with major politicians in the corridors of power.
Reacting to the incident in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, Olawunmi said if the situation is not handled properly, President Tinubu would be forced to combat terrorism on two fronts.
He said it was saddening seeing all efforts put in place by former president Yar’ Adua to curb these events from repeating, has come to nought.
“It has been a long time coming. If you recall, in this same Niger Delta, military men were being killed in 2005, 2006 and 2007, during Obasanjo’s time. We moved into Delta that time and we discovered that most of the things that were happening were mostly political.
“People that wanted to be governors, senators were using armed boys to cause fear to their opponents and after the election, they are often abandoned and when we went into Delta then, we discovered that most of the groups were affiliated to one politician or the other and the president called them to order and some of them stopped what they were doing but majority of them refused. I don’t like to mention some names that are still in the corridor of power on air.
“When the killing of soldiers was consistent and continued in 2007, Yar’ Adua called all the ministry intelligence agencies to gather and gave them the order to put this thing to an end and this thing was stopped within one year of giving us that order. It’s very disheartening that this is happening again because the amount of money the federal government spent, the number of men and materials that we lost to put this to the point of this amnesty program that you are talking about today, it very painful to see that all those efforts during Yar’ Adua’s time has come to nought.”
Olawunmi also stated that the resurgence of these attacks in the Nigeria Delta region is in line with preparation of the upcoming elections in 2027.
“The politicians have started again. I have the DNA structure of Delta in my hand. Whatever you see going on in Delta now is political. What they are trying to do is warm up for 2027 and at the end of the day, they are going to make the federal government fight on two fronts.
“If you open the flank in the Niger Delta with what is happening in the north, the central government is going to collapse.
He also spoke against the ineffective use of the kinetic approach in tackling security challenges in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The retired officer expressed concerns over the continuous loss of personnel to militant leaders such as Tompolo, Ateke Tom, and Asari Dokubo, attributing it to the failure of solely relying on kinetic efforts.
“The amnesty program I designed personally and what I have discovered is that its not being implemented but has been corrupted completely and that is not what we planned. The idea of amnesty came from the defense intelligence agency but it was guided by Yar’adua himself. We had our options and he didn’t want bloodshed and that is why everybody is enjoying what amnesty is. The idea of amnesty was reinforced by the Yar’ Adua option.
“The issue of military compliance of course has always been there. I will not defend the military on that. Even now, the military gets involved in bunkering activities. Whatever is going on in that state, I know because I have not left Delta since I left the military, I know exactly what is going on there now, that’s why I look at the big picture and say it is more political than economic.
“The federal government is always making the mistake of trying to appease the militants or terrorists and so on. The guy that is being looked for right now, I can’t mention his name, they should investigate, he has Tantita protection. He was given part of the contract of the Tantita project.”
Addressing the issue of intelligence failure, he emphasized the role of politicians in hampering security efforts. He said the intelligence initiatives are often thwarted by the political class due to their inability to comprehend technical data.
“What people don’t understand about intelligence is that the practitioners themselves don’t have a problem. There are many processes that we have tried to do in the past that the politicians will just kill it. Once it finishes from the DHQ and passed to them, there is nothing you can do after that.
“It is not like we fail most of the time but just because the political class are not as educated as they should. Most of them are not worthy of those offices.
“They can’t even interpret technical data that you send to them. They won’t even have time. So, I think we have a problem with the political class and not intelligence failure.”
Expressing disappointment in the lack of community cooperation in apprehending criminals, the retired officer urged citizens to support military efforts instead of harboring criminals.
“By now, I expect the community to have brought him out. We know his name and everything and if they say they are under, there is a lot of emotion, why not bring him out? So, if you are complacent and hide a criminal, then you get what you get. People should allow military to do their jobs”
Chioma Kalu
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