Rivers boat shooting: N-Delta group,IPDI calls on Buhari, Army Chief, IGP to bring to book erring soldiers

• Accuses military of extra-judicial execution

• Demands Justice

Following the Thursday shooting of a local boat in Bonny, Rivers State, by alleged military chopper, Niger Delta rights group, the Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of army staff and the inspector general of police to urgently investigate the ugly incident targeted at the Ijaw people and bring to book the erring soldiers who shot at the commercial transport local boat and killed innocent Ijaw people in the state.

The group in a statement by its national president, Comrade Ozobo Austin said the shooting was another effort by the Nigerian State to eliminate peace loving Ijaw people in Rivers State, adding that the military’s killing smacked extra-judicial execution.

IPDI said on no account should military authority use helicopter bought with Niger Delta oil money to aggressively destroy Ijaw people who produce the bulk of the oil that sustains the Nigerian state. It noted that the perpetrators would not go scott free.

Comrade Ozobo said Ijaw people and Niger Delta youths have been provoked by the military barbaric shooting, stating that the incident, if not properly investigated and addressed, would spark outrage in the region.

The group while condemning the shooting, said Ijaw people and Niger Delta in particular are beginning to lose confidence in the Nigerian military, adding that the military have been reduced to the whims and caprices of dictators and oppressors in the other divides of the country.

While demanding for justice, the group called on President Buhari, the chief of army staff and the inspector general of police to urgently unravel the cause of the shooting of the local boat in Rivers State and punish the erring soldiers to serve as deterrent for the lives lost in the ill-fated incident in Rivers State on Thursday.