Five days after the commander of the Brass unit of the Joint Task Force, Lt. Col. Abubakar Malik, was killed along with three others; the outfit yesterday announced the recovery of the decomposing bodies by local divers and security operatives.
NEWSMEN gathered that the bodies were found a few metres away from the place they were killed and taken to a mortuary in Yenagoa, the state capital.
The JTF immediately arrested the boat operator engaged by the militants who killed the soldiers with a view to identifying those behind the attack. But the man, Amos Samuel, told the JTF under interrogation that the gunmen who hired him for the operation that claimed the officers lives were masked and that he was asked to jump into the ocean once they started shooting, thereby making it impossible for him to identify them.
After attacking the boat, the gunmen arrested me and took me to a particular point in the river and asked me to jump into the water. That was how I escaped, he was quoted as saying.
Media coordinator of the JTF Lt. Col. Timothy Antipha said: The JTF wishes to disclose that the attack was carried out by a gang of sea pirates led by Shedrack Itokofuwei, alias Mammy Water, who hails from Azagbene in Southern Ijaw LGA of Bayelsa State.
On that fateful day, Mammy Water and his gang left his base in a convoy of about 5 speedboats heading to Forupa, a new location in Bayelsa State. However, enroute, the criminal convoy attacked JTF personnel who were heading to Ogbia from Brass.
Thereafter, the same convoy encountered a Marine Police checkpoint, which they also attacked. However, following the unfortunate incident, military patrol teams within the vicinity were notified. Expectedly, the same convoy emerged at One Man Camp (a fishing settlement). At this point, they were engaged by a Nigerian Navy patrol boat. Three of their speed boats were sunk while two others escaped.
The JTF flayed the renewed attempt by the MEND to seek relevance by creating a false impression that the attacks have been carried out by loyal groups of militants of which it is the coordinating authority.
Antigha said: We wish to warn that the fresh attempt by some misguided persons to orchestrate another round of violence and insecurity in the region will be an exercise in futility, because the JTF is prepared more than ever to crush any obstacle on the path to lasting peace and security in the Niger Delta region.
Also, the JTF assures Nigerians that recent occurrences are simply organized criminal activities by people who believe that the only profitable way to engage with government is through violence. Consequently, it should be noted that these criminal elements might occasionally score opportunistic and temporary victories, such as this most recent attack on personnel who were on purely administrative and logistic movement, but ultimately these agents of insecurity will lose.
In a reaction to the development, the governor of the Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson, in a condolence statement issued by his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said he was working with the various security agencies to capture the fleeing gunmen.
Governor Dickson expresses optimism that the pirates will be apprehended and brought to book because, according to him, his government has zero tolerance for crime and criminality, the governors said.
But a source close to the JTF operations told LEADERSHIP exclusively that the MEND commander, Gen. Mammy Water and five of his men were killed in a joint operation carried out in response to the killing of the soldiers and policemen last Thursday.
The source said the JTF deployed many gunboats that sank four out of the six motorized boats fitted with general purposed machine guns (GPMG), and other lethal weapons which the late militant leaders and his men used in the attack.
We have confirmed today that the late militant leader, who had his oil bunkering and kidnapping camp at Club Creek in Azegbene community of Ekeremor LGA of the state, has been killed,” he said.
Etokofuwei, who was described as a very dangerous criminal that had been terrorising the waterways in Bayelsa State, is said to have been on the watch list of the JTF but had evaded arrest because of traitors in the system who often aided him to escape before the arrival of security men in his camp.
The boy has been there wreaking havoc on the waterways, stealing crude oil, killing and kidnapping at will. In fact, whenever he lacked money, he would attack anyone that came across his way to extract money from his victims.
He was a serious danger to the community and others doing business along the waterways, the source said.
It was learnt that, the task force had thrice deployed massive operations to smoke outmammy water out of the area but fifth columnists also leaked the information to him and the operations failed.
Investigations showed that the first operation to kill the militant leader on December 26, 2011, was aborted because the man had fled before the troops mobilised for the attack on his camp arrived.
The last attempt by the JTF to kill the militant last week was also reportedly leaked to him by a man suspected to be a lieutenant, who is believed to have been benefitting from the militant’s illicit operations.
However, following the failed attempt by the JTF to kill him, Etokofuwei is said to have deployed his men and weapons to wipe out anything that had the semblance of the army, police and the navy from sight.
The source said last Thursday’s unprovoked killing of four unarmed marine policemen was informed by the decision of the militant to kill any security operative to stop them from going after him and his gang.
It was for the same reason that the gang opened fire on Lt. Col. Malik and three other soldiers who were on their routine patrol duty along the Brass-Nembe waterways.
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