DETERMINED to rid Rivers State of kidnappers, security agents under the aegis of the Joint Task Force (JTF) yesterday raided Okporowo Ogbakiri community in Emuoha Local Government Area of the state.
A military source disclosed that that more than 100 men of the JTF comprising of the Army, Navy, Airforce, Police and State Security Services (SSS) were involved in the operation, which started early yesterday.
The source said intelligence and security reports indicated that Okporowo Ogbakiri has turned into a major hideout of miscreants masquerading as militants, who are involved in the kidnapping of expatriates in the state.
“The reason why the JTF had to storm the place is basically to rid the area, which security reports has indicated is now a hideout and stronghold of some hoodlums parading themselves as people fighting for justice. The people we are after are those involved in hostage taking for the sake of ransom,” the source said.
The Guardian gathered from a local politician that the fierce-looking, well-armed officers broke into houses suspected to belong to the kidnappers and ransacked them.
It was also alleged that a house said to belong to one of the kidnappers’ kingpins was torched by the security agents, who have vowed to lay siege to the area until the last kidnapper and other criminal elements were flushed out.
Similarly, a source at Isiodu community, Emuoha, said, “they (JTF) are currently putting everything (premises and property) to the torch (razed). This action may have followed the capture of an alleged militant during a JTF operation last night.”
“Several civilians were also taken and a small quantity of arms recovered in Isiodu, Emuoha Local Government,” the source added.
The military commenced its offensive against suspected strongholds of hostage takers last Monday, when men of the JTF laid siege to Okrika. During the raid, the second-in-command to the wanted leader of the Niger Delta Vigilantes (NDV), Ateke Tom, was killed.
The JTF had, in September 2006, declared Tom wanted “in connection with various breaches of internal security including murder, robbery and illegal oil bunkering.”
The 2nd Amphibious Brigade spokesperson, Major Musa Sagir (whom The Guardian tried to reach yesterday to no avail), had said the essence of the raid on Okrika, considered to be a major flashpoint in Rivers State, was to rid it of criminals involved in hostage taking and bank robberies.
On Friday, the JTF men, on a cordon-and-search operation in Okrika, successfully rescued a Frenchman kidnapped in Port Harcourt early last month.
Gunmen, at Rumuolumeni community close to Port Harcourt, had abducted Gerard Laporal, a logistics expert, who works for French multinational oil company, Total/Elf, on the February 8, 2007.