The Nigerian Army has released the names and photographs of the soldiers killed on Thursday in Delta State.
The army released the details in a post on its official X handle on Monday evening.
YourCitiNews reported how the soldiers, including four officers, were killed in Okuama community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.
Military authorities earlier said they were killed while on a mission to maintain peace between two warring communities: Okuama and Okoloba. Previous statements by military authorities and President Bola Tinubu indicated that 16 soldiers were killed but the army released the names and photos of 17 slain soldiers.
In its post on X, the army named the slain commander of the team as AH Ali, a lieutenant colonel. The two majors are SD Shafa and DE Obi while the army captain is U Zakari. The army also named the other 13 slain soldiers.
1. Lieutenant Colonel AH Ali – commanding officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion
2. Major SD Shafa
3. Major DE Obi
4. Captain U Zakari
5. Ssgt Yahaya Saidu
6. Cpl Yahaya Danbaba
7. Cpl Kabiru Bashir
8. LCpl Bulus Haruna
9. LCpl Sole Opeyemi
10. LCpl Bello Anas
11. LCpl Hamman Peter
12. LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi
13. Pte Alhaji Isah
14. Pte Clement Francis
15. Pte Abubakar Ali
16. Pte Ibrahim Adamu
17. Pte Adamu Ibrahim
President Bola Tinubu like most Nigerians has condemned the killing of the soldiers. The president also ordered the military to ensure the killers are brought to justice.
Military authorities announced the killing of the soldiers on Saturday. On Sunday morning, many houses in Okuama community were razed, allegedly by retaliating soldiers. It is not clear how many people died in that incident as many residents of the community had reportedly fled to a neighbouring community for fear of retaliation by soldiers.
The military, however, denied on Monday that soldiers carried out the retaliatory attacks.
