DELTA Ijaw Women Initiative, DIWI, yesterday, urged the
Nigerian Army to keep soldiers away from the riverine communities,...
as women in
the oil communities require development and peace, not Operation Crocodile
Smile that military authorities plan to launch in the South-South and parts of
South-West. President, DIWI, Mrs Ebimaye Bebenimibo, who stated this in Warri,
Delta State, while reacting to a statement by Director, Army Public Relations,
Brig-Gen Sani Usman, that the army was set to launch Operation Crocodile Smile
II, in the South-South and some parts of the South-West, said that the women
will rather prefer the army to launch Operation Massive Development in the oil
region. Army with armoured tank Her words: “What the women in the riverine
communities need now is development, peace and empowerment, not an atmosphere
of chaos and tension that the army and other security agencies are planning to
unleash on them. “We are, therefore, calling on the relevant authorities,
especially the Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, to ensure such
exercise does not take place in our riverine communities to the detriment of
the good and law-abiding people of the Niger Delta, especially those in the
riverine communities. They (the army) should, therefore, keep away from our
riverine communities. “It is a known fact that the last time the army carried
out Crocodile Smile in the riverine communities, it left the women in tears and
with a painful experience, especially with the wrongful arrest of 10 youths,
who were from one of the riverine communities. “Imagine the trauma those women
had to go through until their innocent children were later released. Those
Delta Ijaw women are yet to recover from that last incident and now the army is
again set to carry out another of such exercise, thereby heightening their
fears. “We, the Delta Ijaw women believe that rather than the army carrying out
such exercise, they and the relevant authorities should garner all of their
energies to see to the smooth take-off of certain projects in the riverine
communities, one of which is the Nigeria Maritime University, NMU, Okerenkoko
with its take-off campus at Kurutie town in Gbaramatu Kingdom, the Gbaramatu
Deep Sea Port and the Escravos Export Processing Zone, EPZ.”
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