JOINT task force in Rivers state has taken the crusade against militancy and brigandage in the state this time to the creeks.
In the last one month no fewer than eight militants have been arrested by the security body. And they
JOINT task force takes crusade against militancy and brigandage to the creeks.are reportedly assisting the security body with technical and vital information on how to dislodge militants in the creeks.
It would be recalled that at a period in 2007 the state was unsafe with the sinister activities of these brigands at its height.
The security situation degenerated to the level that residents started relocating from Port Harcourt to neighboring states and driving from there to their offices in Port Harcourt .
Dynamites were detonated at will and live bullets were fired indiscriminately into market places, bus stops just name them. In one night alone in Diobu part of the city, about twenty persons were shot dead by rampaging cultists.
The situation was really really bad; residents had to cry out wondering if government had collapsed in the state. Consequently a meeting of service chiefs headed then by the Chief of Defense Staff,
Andrew Owoye Azazi, an army general, held at the Port Harcourt army barracks, at the end of which soldiers literarily took over security of the state with emphasis then on the state capital.
Within days the soldiers overwhelmed the brigades thus forcing them to relocate to the creeks of the state.
They continued their acts of terror on the water ways. Passenger boats were often attacked by the militants and passengers dispo ssessed of valuables. Even sometimes some of the passengers were shot dead.
On several occasions boat drivers on the Bonny Port Harcourt water route had to withdraw their service in protest against what they termed the horrible security situation on the route.
Passengers were not the only group affected by the activities of the militants that relocated to the creeks. Besides attack on supply vessels locals like fishermen and young ladies that go to fetch periwinkles were not spared.
These young ladies were on many occasions raped. And in protest many stopped going to fetch this sea food.
Col Sagir Musa.Rivers JTF spokesmanThe militants did not restrict their activities to the creeks but also extended to villages and hamlets around these creeks. Security situations degenerated to the level that many families could no longer bury their loved ones in their ancestral homes because of the boys. Nobody was willing to leave a secured Port Harcourt to attend burials in the villages where they were not sure of their safety.
A prominent politician who spoke to the Vanguard on strict condition of anonymity lamented the activities of these militants in his village.
“Vanguard you won’t believe it. I have not gone to my village in the past one year because of these boys. As I talk to you we have corpses in the mortuary for years now. Because we can’t take them home for fear of the boys.”
JTF move to the creeks When the cries became too much it challenged the JTF to rise to the situation. They had to extend their tentacles to the creeks. In the last one month the security body has heightened its operations in these areas. It began recently with the arrest of Sobomabo Jack rich aka Egberipapa.
Contrary to allegations that the JTF invaded a peace meeting to arrest the militant in the last week of December, Spokesman of the security body, Lieutenant Col Sagir Musa said the gathering at the palace of the amanyanabo of Kalabari in Buguma was not truly a peace forum as those in the area claimed.
According to him, it was a platform organized to reconcile warring cult groups in the area. And if it had been allowed to pull through it would have further heightened the security tension in the area and in the state. He said this was what the JTF avoided with the arrest.
“This was what people were meant to believe that he came for a peace meeting. But there is more to that. Also contrary to what you are expecting, the peace meeting was not aimed at renunciation or to denounce militancy or surrender arms and become a useful member of society.
The peace meeting if there was any was just aimed at reconciling the militant factions in the area. And from security point of view once that is achieved it would further reinforce their recalcitrant attitude to the state and the people. So the best to do was to arrest him to avoid that unity.” he told the Vanguard
“There are two contending militant groups in Degema and Abonnema axis. Their clashes have caused many pain and even caused some to flee the areas. The situation was so bad that the Commander of the JTF had to deploy troops there.
The so called peace meeting if it existed was aimed at reconciling these militant groups. And it is not good for the nation.” he said.
Barely two weeks after this arrest the JTF moved into Bakana where it shot dead another militant leader, widely called Boy Chiki or UT.
The JTF spokesman said they had originally wanted to bring him alive to their headquarters in Port Harcourt but when he made attempt to break away from their grip they had no other option but to shoot him.
He said the shot was just to demobilize him but he gave up the ghost on the way to the military hospital in Port Harcourt .
“You can’t fight militancy anywhere in the country without covert operations, sourcing local informants. This is why we call it covert operation. It was one of our credible informant that told us that Boy Chiki, more known as UT was at that material time arriving into Bakana township.
And our people laid ambush. Arrested him without firing a shot. After the arrest, the aim was to make ready gun boats protection for him to be brought to our headquarters in Port Harcourt . But suddenly, the culprit zoomed out, attempted to run.
All efforts to arrest him proved abortive.
It would have been a terrible embarrassment for the Nigerian armed forces and the nation as a whole that a dreaded militant leader arrested by the JTF escaped.
We had no other option at that time so given our professional disposition and training we had to shoot at him, not with an intention to kill him. But very sadly, on the way to the military hospital in Port Harcourt he gave up the ghost.
We feel the death because it was our wish that he got to our headquarters alive. He would certainly have given us very useful and technical information.
There is what we call thug of war. Even recently Israel in Pakistan , they mistakenly killed two of their men. During intense crisis situation you can’t rule out some of such. Again, he was a prime target, running to escape.
What do you do if he had escaped? How do you manage the image of the armed forces, the nation, it would have been a very serious draw back.
The people should know that we would have loved to bring him alive here. Because of the information he would have given us. This technical and strategic information we missed by his death.”
Last weekend again, the JTF carried out another military operation in Ajakaja community that lasted over forty eight hours.
Two mansions allegedly belonging to two militant leaders, Soboma George and Adumu were reportedly razed down by the soldiers in the two day operation.
Lieutenant Col Sagir Musa said the JTF stormed the area with the aim of dislodging militants said to have held the community under siege. And have caused many to flee the area.
He said a three prong approach which included marine operation to checkmate the militants, aerial survey with helicopters for what he termed reconnaissance of targeted spots and land invasion were applied.
Adding that at the end of the operation with a final mop up by troops led by the Commander of the JTF in the state, Major General Sarki Yarki Bello, no life was lost. He also said nobody was arrested.
“Two houses belongi
ng to Soboma George and Adumu George were destroyed. No single life was lost. And no arrest made. The intention of the JTF in the area was to restore hope by flushing out the cult leaders that have held the area to ransom.
We started on Friday and then did a mop up the following day at about 430am led by the Commander of the JTF, Major General Sariki Yarki Bello. There was aerial survey for recognisance to ensure that nobody escaped. There was maritime operation and land forces were also on ground.”
He continued that the community and others around it celebrated the action of the security body, saying that they even aided the body with speed boats to move people from area to the other. Community sources that spoke to the Vanguard on phone said the action of the soldiers extended to Udungama and Okukpor communities.
The military operation also caused tension in Asarama, Unyeada, Egendem, Ibotirem, Samanga, and Dema communities.
“Nobody expected it. It was a surprise attack. It took the whole areas by surprise”, a community source said.
Meanwhile, some residents in the state capital who spoke to the Vanguard hailed the resolve of the JTF to take the battle to the militants and cultists in the creeks. They said the brigands had so terrorised the river side and creeks that their words were like laws in the communities.
The security body also arrested four militants said to be members of Ateke Tom’s group in the state last week. One of them whose name was given as Ecomog was reportedly next to Ateke in the group. They were all picked at separate times in Ogoni part of the state.
The crusade against criminal militancy in the state is at its peak. The JTF is set to rid the state of brigands and miscreants. And from all indications they seem bent on achieving this task.