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After days of military campaigns in the Niger Delta, the senate, Wednesday, moved in and directed its committee on defence to investigate the campaigns and report back on the situation in the affected areas. The joint military task force (JTF) was reported to have commenced the military campaigns on Monday in Okerenkoko, an Ijaw community in Delta State and is believed to be the stronghold of Niger Delta militants.
The campaign which was endorsed by defence headquarters followed the ambushing of the task force in which about six military officers were reportedly killed.
At plenary session of the senate, Wednesday, James Manager, a senator from Delta South, the area of the crisis, raised a point of order to draw the attention of the upper chamber to the military bombardment and sacking of all the communities in the oil rich Gbaramatu clan of the Warri South West local government area.
Manager, in his motion which he was halted from reading half way by David Mark, senate president, reminded the senate that the mainstay of the Nigerian economy remains oil and gas, but cautioned that the exploration and exploitation would be impossible in the absence of peace and security in the Niger Delta area.
He noted that “it is in the interest of the Niger Delta, just as it is in the interest of the entire nation for peace and the attendant security to prevail in the Niger Delta for the administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua to carry out this administration’s agenda of developing the Niger Delta, as well as, implementing the other parts of the seven-point agenda”.
Manager reminded the senate of its need to intervene in the current military operations in the Gbaramatu clan “to forestall a spread of the operations to other parts of the Niger Delta, while ensuring in the mean time, that all displaced people are adequately catered for by the Federal Government”.
He insisted that the communities including Oporoza, Kurutie, Kunukunnma, Azama and Okerenkoko which had been under heavy military bombardment in the past five days were clearly distinct from the militants’ base referred to as Camp 5 and Iroko Camp.
However, Mark halted Manager from proceeding with his motion, but reminded the senators that since the military offensive in the Niger Delta touched on security matters and the senate did not have full details of the incident, the motion raised by Manager should be referred to the committee on defence.
The committee on defence headed by Ibrahim Idah was subsequently ordered to investigate fully the military campaigns in Delta State and report back to the senate.