THE scale of the battle against militants in the Niger Delta region may be expanded in the next few days. Specifically, there are hints that… the battle may move to Bayelsa and other hot spots of militancy in the region.
Militant warlord and leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante, Ateke Tom, and Farah, another militant leader, have their bases in Bayelsa State.
It was learnt yesterday that the military Joint Task Force (JTF), which is prosecuting the battle in many Ijaw communities in Delta State, may have been gathering intelligence reports on the locations and activities of militants in other states in the region to take the battle to their doorsteps.
Pressed yesterday to confirm whether the battle would move to Bayelsa State, which shares a common boundary with Delta State, the Commander of the JTF, Maj-Gen. Sarkin Yarkin Bello, did not give a definite answer.
He simply said the battle would be “total”.
Bello, who addressed a press conference at the 83 Army Battalion headquarters of the JTF in Warri, also declared the militant warlord, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), who was reportedly ordained “Bishop of the Niger Delta creek,” wanted.
A picture of him showing where he wore a cassock with all the paraphernalia of office, was displayed at the briefing.
Ekpemupolo was accused of operating the shattered Camp 5 at Oporoza in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
Authorities of the JTF, who also displayed a cache of arms and ammunition, as well as other gadgets allegedly recovered from the three militant camps, which had so far fallen to the task force since the ‘war’ started, said that the onslaught would continue until all the militants, who allegedly killed about 12 soldiers, were brought to book.
The killing sparked the violence.
Justifying the battle, Bello said that the operations were in accordance with the JTF’s mandate to flush out militants and illegal oil bunkerers from the creeks.
He said that he personally ordered the the burning of Ekpemupolo’s Guest House at Oporoza from where a large cache of arms and ammunition was allegedly recovered.
The commander also confirmed that he ordered the razing down of the ultra-modern palace of the traditional ruler (Pere) of Gbaramatu Kingdom.
Bello, flanked by the Joint Media Campaign Centre Coordinator, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, and other officers of the JTF, regretted that the operations, which flushed out militants from the notorious Camp 5, Iroko Camp and Okerenkoko Camp, all in Gbaramatu Kingdom, were a “simple military action that was just over-blown by the media.”
On reasons for the killings of civilians by the JTF, Bello said that the alleged killings were not intentional and not targetted at the Ijaw as is widely claimed.
He said that before the JTF launched the deadly attacks on the camps, its intelligence network already had the picture of the areas, the background and everything that aided the battle.
The operations, he said, were organised and personally supervised by him.
He dismissed allegations of indiscriminate shooting of civilians during the raids.
According to him, two Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG), 132 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) Link, 55 units of 12.7 mm rifles, three BMG and 99 AA guns, among others, were recovered from the camps.
He, however, regretted the shootings at the Ogbe-Ijoh Hospital where displaced and wounded persons were receiving treatment, saying: “The task force high command is not properly briefed of the situation in the place.”
Bello also said that the waterways in the region would remain shut for now.
Meanwhile, there was apprehension in Warri yesterday over the movement of troops to strategic places in the city.
The troops were sighted at some popular hotels and clinics, apparently hunting for suspected militants.
In a swift reaction, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), countered the claims of the JTF that it recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.
MEND spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said in a statement: “If the truth should be told, the military is lying to justify the failure of its operation to apprehend any militant or seize any weapons after its reckless and irresponsible use of aerial arsenal on defenceless women, children, the elderly and those too sick to escape.
“Our thoughts go to the pregnant women and some disabled individuals killed.
“The level of wanton destruction of the properties of civilians and the search in hospitals for young injured men is borne out of frustration that the key objective was defeated.
“We promise to pay back the oil industry and the government the same measure of destruction that was meted out to innocent civilians by this cowardly act.”
Yesterday, a group, the Federated Ijaw Niger Delta Communities (FINDC), in a statement signed by Chief Bello Oboko, said: “Gbaramatu does not constitute any threat to the oil-based economy as touted in some quarters.
“In the risk of crossfire of the fratricidal inter-ethnic conflict between the Itsekiri and the Ijaw of Warri, the oil companies, particularly Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), ordered that its workers should quit its site in the crisis area.
“The former Governor, James Onanefe Ibori, introduced the Road Map to Peace in Delta State and the Olusegun Obasanjo-led Federal Government followed suit in finding reconciliation to the Niger Delta national challenge.
“When the genuine issues of agitation are yet to be fully addressed/redressed, it is understandable why the oil companies are not in a hurry to reopen their operations in the creeks. The stakeholders have all since agreed. Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan was therefore damn right to say that Delta State was relatively peaceful.
“In the face of Gbaramatu-Ijaw commitment to the peace/reconciliation process as affirmed by (Governor Emmanuel) Uduaghan, the Chief Security Officer of Delta State, can it be said that the Ijaw-Gbaramatu Kingdom constituted a threat to national economy to warrant the massive aerial, marine and ground bombardments of its communities?”
The Delta State coordinator of the host communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas (HOSTCOM), Dr. Mike Emuh, yesterday described the battle as unfortunate.
Emuh said in Warri that the fighting, which has so far claimed many lives and valuables worth millions of naira, was “a big mistake on the part of the military forces and the militants which could have been avoided.”
He stressed that the crisis had nothing to do with the Niger Delta emancipation or struggle for development, “but is based on personal aggrandisement and selfishness of both parties.”
Emuh advised the Federal Government to immediately withdraw the JTF troops from the region, adding: “It is a war by using the Navy, Army or Air Force.”
Also yesterday and relying on reports, human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), alleged the killing of hundreds of people, mainly civilians, in the raging offensive.
In a statement, the group said: “According to reports received by Amnesty International, hundreds of bystanders, including women and children, are believed to have been killed and injured by the JTF (military) and by the armed groups while shooting at the JTF.”
The Nigerian Army has, however, repeatedly denied using excessive force, insisting that no innocent civilians had been killed or displaced since the clamp down began last weekend.
Defending the JTF position, military spokesman, Colonel Abubakar said on Wednesday: “We are applying minimum force.
“There are no casualties on the civilian side. Whoever is injured must have taken part in the fighting. It means they are criminals and if we get them, we will arrest them.”
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, told reporters same day that the government was doing all it could to minimise the loss of lives.
His words: “The loss of lives, whether the militants or members of the armed forces, is sad. They are all Nigerians and so, we will try and do what we can to prevent loss of lives.”
The heavy military presence has made independent access to remote communities in the creeks around Warri virtually impossible since the clashes began, making it difficult to assess the number of the displaced and injured.
AI claimed that thousands of people had been forced to flee their homes, echoing reports from local rights groups.
“Many houses have been set on fire and destroyed by the military. People are still in hiding in the forest, with no access to medical care and food,” the group said.
Amnesty estimated that 20,000 people, living in the area, were trapped by the military offensive, unable to use their usual mode of transport – travelling by boat through the creeks – for fear of being targeted by either the troops or the militants.
The areas hit by the military, including the Okerenkoko and Oporoza communities, are largely made up of Ijaw, the largest ethnic group in the Niger Delta region, prompting accusations from local leaders of a targeted campaign.
Meanwhile, a Philippine government official yesterday confirmed the rescue of two more Filipino crew members of the hijacked MV Spirit by men of the JTF.
The Foreign Affairs Undersecretary, Esteban Conejos, said the freed Filipino seafarers will head to Lagos, where they will be turned over to the Philippine Embassy.
The duo will join their other nine colleagues, who were rescued earlier for repatriation to Manila.
Conejos said the Philippine Government was cooperating with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and security officials for the safe release of the remaining five seafarers, who are in the custody of the militants.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPF), Mujahid Asari Dokubo, has declared that the agitation for the control of oil resources by the Niger Delta people would not abate despite the violence in the region.
Speaking exclusively with the Nigerian Compass yesterday in Lagos, Dokubo accused the Federal Government of orchestrating the violence.
He alleged that the government “used” Mr. Government Ekponpolo, the militant chief blamed for the attack on the JTF troops, and later turned against him.
He said: “We did not expect Mr. (Government) Ekpenpolo to be attacked by the Federal Government because he has always worked for the government. He worked for the government and protected the government and can be called a PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) member because he has been of immense assistance and moderating factor in the Niger Delta region. If people are kidnapped, he goes to release them and he talks to Yar’Adua on the phone regularly; he communicates with people in government.
“So, for the same government he has been working for to turn against him, then it is unfortunate and it shows that the government does not have any sincere intention in addressing the genuine aspirations of the people of the Niger Delta region. Ekpenpolo comes from Gbaramatuland where all the communities that the government has destroyed are located.
“This attack was premeditated and orchestrated by the government. First, I was the one they wanted to use against the people, but I told them that I cannot be criminalised. The Nigerian state sent in military men to commit unprovoked attack on our people and commit genocide and pogrom, with towns, communities and villages of Kunukunuma, Oporoja, Kurutie and Okerenkoko, all in Gbaramatu, totally destroyed and thousands of people have been killed, while several others were displaced. It is the government of the Nigerian state that instigated the struggle.”
He, however, vowed that it is a case of “no retreat, no surrender in the quest for freedom in the Niger Delta region.”
Saying the current ‘war’ had been expected, Dokubo explained: “If you are engaged in a struggle of liberation, those who are benefiting from the illegitimate and immoral occupation of our land will continue trying to oppress the people and whoever raises the banner of freedom and liberty will be crushed.”
On his role in the crisis, he said: “I have no other role to play than to encourage my people to be firm and resolute. I have no other role to play because we will not and will never abdicate the struggle.”
He, however, warned those he said were masquerading as freedom fighters, but doing so for the sake of their “belly and pocket”.
On whether he is being wanted by the government, Dokubo said that he doesn’t know whether the government is after him or has anything against him in the ongoing crisis.
Asked whether he was aware that the JTF said its troops were hunting him, he said: “I don’t know. The government has not said anything about me being wanted. I read in the papers that they are looking for me.”