Not fewer than four suspected Niger Delta militants were killed in the wee hours of yesterday and many more were injured but escaped into the creek after an assault on a military House Boat in Rivers State.
It was reported that the incident happened around 4:30am and four soldier who are currently getting treated for various degrees of bullet wounds were injured in the gun battle between the soldiers and the militant and a civilian lost his life in the process.
Few days before this latest attack, an attack similar to this was reported on a settlement for security operatives in Ogbogbagene in Bomadi, Delta State, in which one soldier was killed and a policeman as well as a civil defence operative were injured.
Brig. Gen. Kevin Aligbe, Deputy Force Commander, Operation Delta Safe, who is also the commander of the land component of the special security outfit, told journalists that both attacks were “unprovoked”.
“These same faceless criminals attacked our troops deployed in Tuma House Boat in Rivers State at about 04.30 hours. The bandits were repelled by vigilant troops and they suffered heavy casualties while a few of them ran into the adjoining creeks.
“Unfortunately, four soldiers were injured while one civilian died”, Aligbe disclosed, adding that the crackdown on the bandits and their faceless sponsors had been intensified and progressing.
Aligbe, who spoke at the JTF headquarters in Igbogene, outskirts of Yenagoa, noted that several suspects had been arrested and were being profiled by the military, while those found to be innocent were being released.
On the attack in Bomadi and concerns raised by several Ijaw groups , the JTF said the high command of the security outfit had already visited the scenes where the soldiers were deployed, insisting that no houses were razed neither was anyone molested.
The Deputy Commander said he visited the areas accompanied by their traditional rulers, noting that the operation was abiding with the highest standard of the rules of military engagement.
Furthermore he said that the miscreants used the veil of darkness to open fire on the troops and killed a soldier and also carted away some equipment, stressing that communities must ensure that criminals are not shielded.
“In order to arrest the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, troops are trailing the criminals who fled into the communities after the crime. Communities must not condone or harbour criminals"
“Therefore, they are kindly obliged to reveal the identities of these criminals as they will be smoked out from their hideouts in order to face justice”, he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment