Fear has gripped residents of Azuzuama and surrounding communities as soldiers and other security operatives from the Joint Task Force are reportedly moving in to carry out a flush-out operation targeted at militants.
Fear has gripped residents of Azuzuama and surrounding communities as soldiers and other security operatives from the Joint Task Force are reportedly moving in to carry out a flush-out operation targeted at militants.
SaharaReporters gathered that residents of the coastal communities have been fleeing to forestall falling victim to military firepower as soldiers are being deployed to the area to fish out the killers who killed 12 policemen three weeks ago. The slain officers were on escort duties to the community when they were ambushed and killed.
The murdered officers were part of 50 police personnel deployed to provide security in Azuzuama, southern Ijaw local government area, for political “dignitaries” attending the burial of the mother of Mr. Kile Torughedi, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
Mr. Torughedi, who accepted the Federal Government's amnesty, is a special assistant on maritime security to Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State.
SaharaReporters learnt that some of the residents have fled to neighboring communities in southern Ijaw local government area while others have taken refuge with family members in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
James Yibowei, who resides in Azuzuama, told SaharaReporters that the onslaught by the JTF would not achieve anything as the criminals who killed the policemen have since left the community.
“Why are they just suffering innocent people and making us refugees?” he asked, adding, “Will the militants be so naïve to wait for three weeks in the community?”
Mr. Yibowei added that the militants must know “that the policemen were killed by boys loyal to the ex-MEND leader who is now in government. Why don’t they question him to produce his boys rather than unleash terror on defenseless civilians?”
Meanwhile, the members of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, called “Operation Pulo Shield,” have expressed confidence in their ability to flush out criminals from four hideouts in the creeks along southern Ijaw local government area.
The task force’s media coordinator, Lieutenant Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, told newsmen in Yenagoa on Tuesday that pirates had been launching attacks on unsuspecting victims going about their legitimate businesses in the water ways.
“Given our mandate to rid the Niger Delta of criminality, we are spurred by this unwholesome development to commence, today, a clean-up operation of criminal hideouts where kidnappers and sea robbers hibernate.
“Our troops have successfully clamped down on four criminal hideouts at Azuzuama in southern Ijaw local government,” said the colonel. He called on law abiding citizens in the area to steer clear of criminal hideouts and to cooperate with security operatives in their efforts to rid the region of criminals.
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