The Federal Government may have decided to intensify the use of military onslaught against militants operating along the creeks of the Niger Delta, as massive military deployment was carried out in Bayelsa state yesterday.
In terse statements by the Federal Government and Naval authorities yesterday, the resolve to protect lives and property was reinstated.
Minister of Information, Mr. Frank Nweke, Jnr while confirming the rescue of 6 expatriates held hostage by the militants said �the Federal Government reassures all Nigerians and business interest in the Niger Delta area of its unwavering resolve to ensure security of lives and property, not only in the region but the whole of Nigeria.�
Corroborating Federal Government�s position, Naval authorities in a statement last night, signed by Navy Capt. Medeani said �We will go tough with the militants and we will not rest until they are smoked out.�
THISDAY investigation revealed that troops were deployed to Nembe and Brass through Ogbia, where the perpetrators of the Tuesday attack on a vessel belonging to Agip, an Italian oil company, led to the killing of a Briton.
Hundreds of troops in several trucks were moved around the state to suspected flash point areas.
Also, helicopter gunships belonging to the Nigeria Air Force and attached to the Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Hope, were hovering over the sky lines of the state capital and the hinterland.
It would be recalled that following the incessant attack on oil facilities and equipment, as well as the subsequent kidnapping of foreign oil workers by youths in the Niger delta region in recent time, the Federal Government ordered soldiers to such facilities to engage the militants.
Soldiers attached to the facilities have, however, in the last few months been unable to tame the militants who were said to have superior ammunitions.
The military personnel also recorded a defeat when, in the first rescue operation carried out by men of the Nigerian Navy and the subsequent confrontation with militants, one of the hostages was killed while the Navy also suffered heavy casualty.
When contacted, the Commander of the Joint Task Force, Brig. Alfred Ilogho said what took place was just routine change of guard duties.
Meanwhile, the Italian national who was injured in the shootout when the Nigerian Navy stormed the Kono platform to release kidnapped oil workers from militants has been flown abroad for treatment while the rest are receiving medical attention in the country.
However, the remains of the slain Briton who was the only casualty on the part of the kidnapped expatriates has also been deposited at an undisclosed morgue awaiting final directives from its former employees.
But the identities of the injured and the slain are yet to be disclosed.
The workers, who were employed by Saipem, an oil servicing company, were working in the Kono fields when militants numbering about 10 stormed the FPSO Mystria and held them hostage.
The militants, who stormed the platform in the deep offshore of Bonny Island, Tuesday night around 10pm, overpowered the workers numbering 89 and held them till Wednesday morning when they took the seven to an undisclosed location.
THISDAY however gathered that the militants were still hovering around the area which gave the Navy ample chance to organise to free them forcefully before the shoot out which proved fatal.
The Navy, as at press time, was yet to acknowledge its casualty figure while all inquiries on the storming have met with tacit silence.
However, Saipem and its partner, Eni Group, acknowledged the attack and the casualty recorded in the attempt to free the hostages.
Nov242006