OPERATION SAFE MISTAKES; AN OPERATION OF MANY MISTAKES

This Is An Online Petition Against Operation Safe Haven To Defense Headquarters.
15TH MAY,2020.
(SHARE, UNTIL IT GETS TO THE MILITARY AUTHORITIES).

Dear sir,
This is a petition written by a patriotic citizen of this Noble country, who’s tax is used to train and pay the Security forces. I am an indigene of Plateau where the operation headquarters of your ancient operation code named “Safe Haven” is domiciled.

Sir, as PLATEAU people, we should ordinarily feel safe and more comfortable with your men on our soil but their excesses over time has left us not only in despair about the security of this country but also about the kinds of personnels our nation’s sovereign wealth is spent on training.

Despite loosing counts of the very many people that your men have cut short while in their prime, permit me to bring to your notice few Touching cases of young, vibrant and strong youths that were killed in cold blood amongst many other (reported and unreported) cases by your “Killer Boys” who go around flaunting their “Trained To Kill” T-shirts.

Sir, on the 5th of October 2018, an 18 year old promising young man was gunned down by a Soldier of operation Safe Haven who’s in his livery amongst colleagues on patrol around the students hostel for no offense than being a Plateau man.

Again, some few months ago, a 31 year old man by name Benjamin Arum Izang was tortured by Soldiers At Tina Junction Market until He gave up the ghost. His offence again was only that He is from Jos, the headquarters of Operation Safe Haven.

Sadly, and most shocking is the gruesome murder of a 20 year old Rinji Peter Bala, which happened in the late hours of 12th May 2020 for your men’s crass unprofessionalism.

These are few amongst the many scary tales of disappearances of young boys within Barkin LGA who would be picked up by your men and end up not returning till eternity.

The disservice is that, you never can tell what this young boys would have turned out to be in the future, perhaps becoming Generals that could lead wars and conquer countries or better still defeating the long Boko Haram war that has taken its toll on this country. But they are now lying in their graves and their bloods crying from the depths of the Earth Against their killers mistakenly trained to be Nigerian Soldiers.

How long shall this trend continue??

Your Soldiers have made our people to resort to making jest of you, making jest of the operation and making jest of the military for shooting people at will and for the lame excuses they keep giving to cover what I call “professional negligence and NATIONAL unpatroitism”.

Sir, the ridicule to the face of the military here is conspicuous enough that the Social media space is inundated, billboards and placards everywhere carrying innuendo to the khaki they wear in killing, all this for the misdoings of your boys.

Though there is a statement by the OPSH taking responsibility apologizing for the killing, PLATEAU people will not fold their hands and allow the details be swept under the carpet. Saying that the personnel at the Sentry who shot the victim mistook him for escaping detainee is a grave insult to our sensitivities. Mistakes has always been the excuse, hence Operation Safe Mistakes.

This further tells us that the Nigerian military sentries do not have communications with the duty room or command centers so that when they observe danger, they fire without alerting their colleagues. Again why would you pick up people from a far off distance and after interrogating them, release them and tell them to go without being escorted out of the vicinity? This tells a lot about why so many operations in the country have always lingered for decades without meaningful success. Or were the 5 released people as claimed by the OPSH told to go so that they could fine their way out of the sector by themselves and gather more Intel if they wish against the military if they were “An Enemy”

Many questions begging for answers

Sir, your Soldiers in my state have made the people not to trust them, there’s serious apathy for your men here.

How long shall the whole media space continue to make caricature of the military.

How long shall the pundits continue to expound on extrajudicial killings, how long shall the cartoonists continue to paint a picture of a Killer Armed Forces paid and trained by the Nation’s sovereign wealth.

No wonder a friend said he has since stopped praying for the Nigerian armed forces since the day he watched a brother assassinated in his presence by a supposedly sane soldier. (This shows the state of despair amongst civilians)

The popularity of the military is at all time low…

One wonders why banditry, kidnappings, Insurgency is still booming since our military can Fire and kill with this kind of accuracy and frequency.

Do you not think it is time to take stock of activities?

An operation that has lasted over a decade but with no physical improvement in Security but only increase in “shoot at sight”.

RECOMMENDATIONS!

1. Thorough investigation should be launched and culprits be made to face the full fury of the law and the punishment be announced to the general public for trust building.
2. Trigger Freak Soldiers should be redeployed to war front, let them go to the heart of Sambissa so they could be showcasing their firing abilities there and not to be left here to feast on innocent bloods.
3. Military should at all cost ensure increased budgeting for civil Military engagements so as to win back the trust of the citizens they are dying to protect.
4. Soldiers should constantly be put to psychology and emotional tests to ascertain their state of mind there by reducing friendly Blue on Blue attacks, Soldier to CIVILIAN fire as a result of depression.
5. Rigorous courses and trainings for Soldiers deployed in Civil operations on the concept of maintaining internal law and order and on how to react to situations in civil matters.

CONCLUSION!
The Civil Military unit of the Nigerian Military is spending millions on civil Military engagements, seminars, and enlightenment campaigns in other to breed patriotism of the citizenry towards the military, but with unabated killings of innocent civilians in this nature, their efforts will not only be futile but counter productive.

The military should and must win back our trust, take us back to those good all days that the military is feared, celebrated and revered by the sundry.

I am writing in pain and anguish as avoidable deaths are becoming unavoidable, my tone is tough because the pain I am having to endure is tougher. PLATEAU IS BECOMING AN ENDANGERED SPECIE AMONGST THE COMMUNITY OF STATE IN NIGERIA.

Note;
This piece was written out of patriotism for the country, love for the military and solidarity to the fallen heroes (those who have died in the course of fighting for the country and most importantly those extrajudicially killed by people whom they should have ordinarily run to for safety.

Cc;
Minister of Defense,
Minister of Justice,
Chief Of Defense Staff,
Chief Of Army Staff,
Chief Civil Military Affairs,
Commandant OPSH.

Signed;
Chamzy Jos,
A Concerned Plateau State Citizen,
Plateau Youth Activist.

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Operation Safe Mistakes; An Operation of Many Mistakes – Chamzy