The Defence Headquarters, in a chilling update yesterday on the recent killing of 18 Army officers and men in Okuama, Delta State, confirmed recovery of the decomposing hearts of some of the victims, TheNATION reports.
It said the hunt for the perpetrators was intensifying but no significant arrest had been made.
Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar called the killing of the soldiers a national tragedy while Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike branded it barbaric.
Niger Delta Development Minister, Abubakar Momoh, vowed that the killers would not go unpunished.
Residents of the community who have fled their homes for fear of reprisal are lamenting the horror of starvation and denial they have been going through since the incident.
An ex-Niger Delta militant leader, ‘General’ Endurance Amagbein, who was accused in some quarters as the brains behind the killings, yesterday vehemently denied the allegation.
He said he knew nothing whatsoever about the incident.
The Director Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, told reporters in Abuja that troops were currently conducting clearance operations and cordon and search to recover, among other things, the weapons of the deceased soldiers.
He said their efforts have yielded the recovery of the “decomposing hearts of some of the murdered soldiers.”
Earlier reports had indicated that the people responsible for the soldiers’ death also harvested their hearts and other body parts.
On the list of communities in which troops have already conducted operations are Akugbene, Ukuama and Okoloba in Ugheli and Ugheli South of Delta State as well as Ukuama Amusamo, Akwagbe, Arhavwarien, Pirigbene and Igbomatoro communities also in Delta State.
He said although no significant arrest had been made yet, the DHQ was not unaware of a viral video of a person “admitting to have perpetrated the killing of the soldiers in Delta State.”
He said one of the advantages of the video is that it “helps to narrow investigations to persons of interest and their cohorts.”
He said: “Accordingly, the state governments and host communities of these personalities are required to assist investigation in flushing them out.
“There can be no hiding place for perpetrators of such dastardly act against our nation. This is a clarion call to duty by members of those communities and the state governments.”
