June 30, (THEWILL) – The Calabar Department Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Affiliation, Attah Ochinke, has faulted the governor’s directive to the military on the continuing Nko/Onyadama Communal Conflict.
The Calabar NBA made this identified in an announcement signed by its Department Chairman, Attah Ochinke and secretary, Eno Edet.
Their response adopted a latest assertion by the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade, who “ordered the sustenance of military operation in Nko group till these behind the capturing of six army personnel are produced or fished out.”
Reacting to the directive, the NBA stated, “we view the directive of the governor to the military to maintain its operations in Nko group as appalling and sick suggested.
“It is not uncommon information that the military is at present engaged in a reprisal motion towards the Nko group over the alleged capturing of six army personnel in the midst of the disaster.
“The military is alleged to be at present engaged in indiscriminate capturing, abstract execution and rape of hapless residents in Nko group underneath the guise of fishing out the perpetrators accountable for the capturing of the army personnel.
“Homes and different properties are being burnt or destroyed by the army within the operation to fish out the culprits. The reprisal assaults are uncooked vengeance and never an investigation.
“legislation of armed conflicts, even in worldwide eventualities, view assaults on peacekeepers as a heinous crime.
“Nonetheless, we’re appalled that the governor, with a mandate for legislation and order within the state, accountable for the welfare and wellbeing of all Cross Riverians, will urge the sustenance of reprisal assaults on hapless villagers.
“We all know that these which were killed, wounded or raped in these reprisal assaults usually are not essentially the perpetrators of the assault on the troopers.
The victims of the reprisal assaults are residents within the improper place and time with out regard to their culpability. At this stage, the governor must be reining within the military and bringing the reprisal assault to an finish.
“Urging the military to proceed is to sentence extra harmless residents to a brutal loss of life by troopers extracting revenge for his or her fallen colleagues”, the NBA stated.
They urged the commanders of the army models concerned, the GOC of 82 Division, Enugu, the Chief of Army Workers, and in the end, President Muhammadu Buhari, our Commander in Chief, to name the troopers to order and produce the scenario underneath management.
Additionally they referred to as on residents with entry to those establishments to intervene to cease the carnage. A scorched earth
coverage as is presently being performed, is a rebuke to the coaching and self-discipline of the Nigerian military, and an affront to Nigerian Regulation.
