… MEND Claims Responsibility For Thursday’s Killings
THe Joint Military Task Force (JTF), code named Operation Pulo Shield, has declared missing the Commander of the Brass Unit of its command and three others shot by suspected oil bunkers along the Brass-Ogbia waterways of Bayelsa State.
JTF Media Coordinator, Lt. Col. Timothy Anthinga, confirmed to The Guardian the JTF authorities’ decision to engage local and naval divers to search for the bodies of the personnel (including a Lt. Col.) killed in the Thursday morning attack. “The JTF has declared missing the four personnel reportedly attacked by the gunmen and have engaged local divers to search for their corpse.
“We have deployed our men in search of the criminals who carried out the attack,” he said.
Already, local divers, sources confirmed, have discovered the bodies of policemen killed in a similar attack.
On Thursday, four bodies of policemen were confirmed recovered by the State Police Command. A Nembe community leader disclosed that the attackers were members of the illegal oil bunkering syndicate operating in the area.
The officers, according to community sources, were killed along with three others involved in a vigorous campaign against oil bunkering activity in the Nembe and Southern Ijaw Councils of the state.
The heavy presence of gunboats and military personnel along the waterways and creeks of Nembe and Brass has, however, sent panic among indigenes of coastal communities in the area.
The JTF operatives are reportedly combing communities and creeks for the killers of the Police and military personnel.
The Thursday morning killing coincided with the recent decision of the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration to set up a security outfit to complement the existing security network in the state.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility for killings.
MEND, in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo, said the attack on a Nigerian marine Police checkpoint on Thursday would be followed by subsequent attacks.
Few hours before the killings, unknown youths launched a multiple dynamite attack on some spots in the Opolo and Biogbolo areas of the state along the same stretch of road where JTF has its headquarters.
According to an eyewitness, the gunmen, suspected to be sea pirates, approached the Marine Police checkpoints and the boats conveying the military personnel in two speedboats and opened fire on them.
Gbomo, who claimed MEND fighters were behind these attacks, warned oil industry vessels not to consider adopting manoeuvers aimed at preventing its fighters from boarding their vessels.
“We will launch rockets at the bridge and other parts of the superstructure of such uncooperative vessels, and ensure such vessels are set alight when we eventually board,” he warned.
He claimed that MEND has been in contact with the abductors of Captain Pikus Viktor, chief engineer of Melnikov Slava and crew member Frederick Villamor taken off a Dutch registered reefer, ‘MV Breeze Clipper,’ anchored approximately three nautical miles off the coast of Port Harcourt on Tuesday, February 28.
He stated: “The kidnappers have offered to hand these sailors, who are all in good health, over to one of our camps in Rivers State.
“We are considering this offer, as these men were not captured from a vessel related to the Nigerian oil industry. The master and chief engineer are Russians, while the remaining crew member is from the Philippines.”
