House of Representatives Calls for Military Intervention in Ossissa Community

The House of Representatives has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to deploy the Army to Ossissa community in Delta to dislodge herdsmen and forestall disturbances in the area.

The call was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion on Urgent Matters of Public Importance by Rep‎. Ossai Ossai (Delta-PDP) in Abuja on Wednesday.

In the motion, Osssai said that the herdsmen had laid siege on the community since Oct. 22, 2016.

According to him, the latest attack which occurred between 3p.m. and 6p.m. of Tuesday had scores of the indigenes injured and some killed, while property worth hundreds of millions of naira were destroyed.

He said the protracted and coordinated nature of the attacks involved use of sophisticated weapons against defenceless locals.

[media-credit name=”Ossai Nicholas Ossai” align=”aligncenter” width=”600″][/media-credit]

The lawmaker said that in the last nine days, there had been indiscriminate shooting of people, kidnapping of children, raping of women, looting of property and burning of houses by the herdsmen.

He recalled that within the last three years, similar attacks had occurred in Ogume, Onicha-Ukwuani and Obinomba, among other communities, in the Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency of the state.

He said it was disturbing that the Federal Government was yet to contain the terror of herdsmen or identify and prosecute their sponsors in order to avoid anarchy in the country.

In his remarks, the Speaker of the House, Mr Yakubu Dogara, urged the Inspector-General of Police to urgently secure and maintain peace in Ossissa community.

He mandated the Committees on Legislative Compliance and Public Safety and National Security to ensure prompt implementation of the House’s resolutions and report back within two weeks.

© NAN