In what looked like a renewed offensive by the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Rivers State against the camp of the leader of Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, Mr. Tom Ateke, the Task Force yesterday uncovered three camps where the arms and ammunitions of the group are dumped.
The discovery came on the heels of allegation by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State that militancy in the area was being fuelled by politicians.
The swoop on the camps was through an air surveillance mission carried out in the area which sent the tense Okrika communities into another wave of panic and prompted complaints by natives of renewed offensive.
Reacting to complaints that the JTF again bombed some of the communities, spokesperson of the Task Force, Lt. Colonel Musa Sagir, said they carried out air reconnaissance of the Dawes Island to confirm intelligence report on the camps.
�We got information that there were three militant camps run by Tom Ateke in the Dawes Island general area and we moved to confirm their existence. We have located the camps and will take actions against them�, Musa said.
He denied allegation that the JTF bombarded the communities and said the task force was aware of the collateral damage such action would result in.
While admitting that the task force only carried out sorties on the island, he said it was just for surveillance purposes.
�What you heard of is just a confirmatory air surveillance of Tom Ateke�s militants’ camps located in the creeks along Dawes Island general area. The air surveillance, or where necessary strike, was targeted at three confirmed militants� camps in the area.
�We are mindful of collateral damages that our actions may cause, that is why we always exercise restraint in our own operation. We are just trying what is practically imperative to tame the growing militants activities in that area particularly their arms and ammo depots�, Musa explained.
Natives, who called THISDAY to complain of an onslaught against their settlements, claimed that helicopter gun ships flew over their areas severally before it opened attack on their locations with deafening bangs.
�They came first in the morning and flew over our roofs towards the NNPC jetty. By the time they turned round for the second over fly, they attacked some places with high caliber bombs which detonation reverberated miles around here�, one of the resident said.
The alleged attack is coming some days after Ateke allegedly issued a seven-day ultimatum to the State government and the JTF to rebuild his houses destroyed by the JTF who accused him of carrying out attacks and criminal activities in the state.
The governor, who stated this at a security meeting with Kalabari Chiefs in Buguma, Asari Toru Local Government Area, said his administration was putting everything in place to discourage militancy but warned that should the youths not turn a new leaf, they risked attack by security agencies.
He expressed confidence that the government could help the militants to turning a new leaf, pointing out that kidnap and cultism have stalled developmental projects approved and funded for the area, one of which is the N2.5 billion rural electrification project.
�I fought the battle not to allow cultism to extend to Ikwerre area, when I was Speaker and I thought that your children who occupied government positions should have fought the same battle. And now those people you were training to achieve political and chieftaincy gains are now consuming you�, he said.
The governor told the chiefs that he has mapped out plans at job creation and youth empowerment so that there would no longer be excuses to resort to militancy on account of unemployment, adding that it would only be fair for them reciprocate the gesture.
Earlier in his address, the Amanyanabo of Kalabari, HRM, King Theophilus Princewill, said that criminality was not in the character of the Kalabaris and urged him to use every authority available to him to rid the kingdom of criminals.
He pleaded with the governor to use his good offices to ensure that they were linked to the national grid as such would fasten the development of their area.
Dec302007