There are indications that the armed men are highly suspected to be political thugs who planned to disrupt the presidential and National Assembly elections in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area in Bayelsa State.
Troops of 5 Battalion, 16 Brigade of the Nigerian Army have arrested 15 persons suspected to be political thugs in Ikebiri 1 in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
A large cache of arms and ammunition were also recovered from the arrested persons.
This was contained in a statement issued on Saturday by Major Jonah Danjuma, Assistant Director, Army Relations, 16 Brigade of the Nigerian Army.
The statement read: “In our determined efforts to ensure peace and security in our Area of Responsibility especially in pursuant of the objectives of Operation SAFE CONDUCT, troops of 5 Battalion, 16 Brigade Nigerian Army today arrested 15 armed men suspected to be political thugs at Ikebiri 1 in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
“It was a successful operation that led to the recovery of large cache of arms, ammunition and other items. This feat was achieved as a direct response by vigilant troops in Operation SAFE CONDUCT 2019 in 16 Brigade Area of Responsibility.
“There are indications that the armed men are highly suspected to be political thugs who planned to disrupt the presidential and National Assembly elections in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area in Bayelsa State.”
“The Brigade wishes to restate her resolve to ensure a seamless conduct of the general election in support of the lead security agencies. The Brigade further wishes to call on the good people of the state to provide credible information on the activities of criminal elements in the society.”
Items recovered from the arrested persons included one general purpose machine gun, two 200 horse powered speedboats, large quantity of ammunition, 16 mobile phones, seven handheld Motorola radio, five Motorola battery charger, three wrist watches, five torchlights, four identify cards, and the sum of N16,000.
Those arrested would be handed over to the Police after initial interrogation.