Military Forces Break Militant Ranks

The ranks of the militia groups involved in the bloody clash that has rocked the Bayelsa creeks and waterways was yesterday broken by men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Operation Restore Hope, with the arrest of one of the militia commanders known as Jairus Profit, while three others are on the run.

The entry of the men of the JTF into the conflict of supremacy among the militia groups, Leadership gathered, was coincidental as they have been under the security searchlight of the intelligence unit of the Task Force over their alleged execution of opposition and community leaders working with military and other security agents.

The battle for supremacy involving Prince Igodo-led group and Ogunbos group broke and reached its peak in the early hours of Sunday. The animosity, it was gathered, had been building up since February when the latter group attempted to establish its base at Peremabiri, a move that did not go down well with Igodo. But fresh facts emerged yesterday in Yenagoa that the intelligence unit of the JTF visited the camp of Igodo and found it destroyed. The combined team of soldiers and Naval officers has however mounted a cordon and search operation around the Southern Ijaw Local Government axis.

The military intelligence source also confirmed to LEADERSHIP that the notorious and embattled Prince Igodo may not be dead as reported by some national dailies as he was reportedly sighted at Angiama community by the military search party, around 4am yesterday. Prince Igodo was reported to have been seriously wounded and moving with few of his loyalists. He was said to have had facilities and arms available to him cut into half by factional leaders engaging him in the bloody duel.

Igodo, going by the analysis of the military intelligence officers on his trail, was attacked by three different groups who wanted him dethroned from the Opuama axis of Southern Ijaw . The groups led by one Douglas , Profit and Ogunbo. It was said that all four factional leaders have been declared wanted by the JTF for their involvement in the killing of innocent persons.

So far, unconfirmed sources claimed that aside from known 20 deaths reported from the on-going supremacy battle, the militia commanders were alleged to have executed more than a hundred innocent persons since the establishment of the Igodo camp. Contacted over the operations of the JTF men along the troubled creeks and waterways, the Bayelsa commander of the JTF, Lt. Col. Chris Musa, confirmed that his men were on the trail of the militia commanders but said it was not a military invasion. "What we are doing is to forestall any spill- over effect into the city of Yenagoa. The militia involved is on the run and using the militias as human shield to avoid arrest," he said. But the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday disagreed with the military authorities over their activities along the Bayelsa waterways and creeks. According to them, "the Nigerian military blocked the channel leading into one of our major camps in Bayelsa state, with eight heavily armed gunboats in preparation for what seemed like a dawn invasion.

"Our fighters headed towards the army position and fired warning shots to them to leave or be confronted. Our fighters approached, in over fifty war boats, the eight gun boats turned and fled from the area, thereby averting a clash and maintaining the on-going ceasefire."

They restated that though the group was willing to respect its unilateral ceasefire, "we will not hesitate to call it off at the slightest provocation or threat". The spokesperson of the JRC, Cynthia Whythe, alleged that at about 8 a.m. the camps belonging to "revolutionary and heroic" combatants of the struggle for the liberation and emancipation of the Ijaw and Niger Delta territory were being bombed by the armed forces of Nigeria.

But he said the leader of the attacked camps has successfully advanced in to the ranks of soldiers and have dealt them great casualties in a deadly manner. " There will be no respite and Ijaws will not allow our own people to suffer alone." He said the unilateral declaration of ceasefire has been called off. "The Nigerian state has declared war on the people of the Ijaw and Niger Delta. All combatants and fighters are hereby called upon to take up judgement against any and every agent of the Nigerian state and her imperialist collaborators such as Shell Petroleum Development Company". Meanwhile, the proposed early take-off of the multi- billion dollar Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State may be stalled as fear of renewed communal conflict between two host communities, Liama and Egweama, grips the people of the area.

Governor Timipre Sylva, who was reportedly out of the state, has cut short his visit abroad to attend to pressing issues at home, during which he paid an unscheduled visit to the belligerent area last week.

The renewed hostility between the people of Liama and Egweama may affect the smooth take-off of the project, especially as investors could be scared from going to the area due to the insecurity there.