Barely three weeks after yet-to-be-identified gunmen ambushed and killed 11 policemen in the creeks of Southern Ijaw council area of Bayelsa State, five youths were ambushed and gunned down in Lobia. The incidents have led to fear that President Jonathan’s home state may have become the hotbed of violence and militancy in the Niger Delta. Shola O’Neil reports
Visitors to Yenagoa, the capital of President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state – Bayelsa – are greeted by billboards of various hues, sizes and designs urging readers to beware of and shun rumour-mongering. Not satisfied with just paying lip service to the ‘deadly sin’, Governor, Seriake Dickson sent a bill to the State Assembly making rumour-mongering a crime punishable with various forms of penalties.
However, recent events in the state have shown that violence and resurgence of bloody violence, and not rumour-mongering, are the gravest challenges facing the state. The raging aggression in President Jonathan’s home state, as the clock races towards 2015 presidential election, may enact feelings of déjà vu.
The insecurity in Southern Ijaw and Nembe Local Government areas are not dissimilar to the violence that led to the bombing of President Jonathan’s Otuoke home in 2007 shortly before the election that brought him in as Vice President then.
Growing insecurity
On Saturday, April 6, armed gunmen ambushed a police convoy in Azuzuama, Southern Ijaw LGA of the state, killing at least 11 policemen. Among those killed in the attack were two inspectors, four non-commissioned officers and five constables.
The incident, which generated widespread condemnation and comments, merely highlighted the state of security in the riverside communities of the state.
Increasing discontent within the rank and file of former militant leaders and their foot soldiers as well as disenchantment with the management of the amnesty programme, fulfilment of pre-amnesty promises and several other factors are gathering storm and threatening the peace and security of the homogenous Ijaw state and others in the delta.
Ironically, the policemen were killed while detailed to provide security during a ceremony hosted by a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Mr. Kile Torughedi, known by the moniker ‘Young Shall Grow’. Torughedi was leader of the western wing of MEND.
The hunters became the haunted when the policemen were ambushed by gunmen near the now infamous Azuzuama community by the gang, who opened fire on them and killed 11 on the spot. A member of the convoy, said to be an Izon (Ijaw) man from the state, jumped into the murky creeks amidst rain of bullets. He was lucky to make it alive, but at a price of up to N1 million ransom.
“He resurfaced after a long time, unknown to him that the gunmen were waiting for him. They took him in their boat and drove to their camp where he was kept before a ransom was paid to secure his release,” a source, who claimed to be in the know of negotiation, told our reporter.
The incident unleashed a flurry of activities, claims and counterclaims. It was also auspicious for a faction of the MEND, which had threatened to unleash mayhem in the wake of sentencing of Henry Okah for terrorism in Johannesburg, South Africa. The group quickly claimed responsibility.
Hours later, it became clear that the Okah-MEND was merely trying to benefit from an unconnected incident. The police fingered disgruntled members of Torughedi’s militant clan. The revelation was no cheery news for security agencies that are battling criminals and militants on several fronts in the region.
A pensive Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Kingsley Omire, in his reaction, ruled out the involvement of MEND. He said the policemen were only “soft target” for their attackers, adding that they were among 50 men he deployed to Azuzuama to provide security for the burial of the ex-militant’s father. The police chief, however, didn’t explain why such heavy deployment would be made just to secure a former warlord.
The incidents also fuelled speculations that the policemen were on illegal duty in the creeks, with illegal bunkering activities top on the list of their possible mission. The nature of their deaths also fuelled the rumour. Those who saw their remains said they were charred and riddled with bullets. The corpses were so bad that journalists were not allowed to see them when they arrived at the waterside. However, Omire waved off the allegation.
Illegal bunkering gangs embedded with some of the so-called repentant militants and security operatives in the area have all but crippled crude oil production from several facilities in the area. Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) were forced to declare force majeur, owing to the activities of the militants. Shell twice within weeks invoked the clause to spare it from contractual obligation to its crude buyers.
The indiscriminate attack on oil facilities, spike in cases of illegal bunkering and illegal crude distilleries in the state heightened criticism of the multibillion pipeline surveillance contract awarded to ex-militant leaders in the state. The contract may also be one of the fuels firing discontentment among the ex-warlords.
Among those who claimed responsibility for the massacre of the policemen was ‘General’ Jasper Adaka Boro, a self-acclaimed former foot soldier of Torughedi. He accused his former boss of embezzling up to N80 million of amnesty funds meant for his ‘boys’. Boro, in a text message sent to journalists, said the killing of the 12 policemen was a warning to Torughedi and others who are short-changing their foot-soldiers in the payment of the monthly amnesty stipends.
Sharing the spoils
He said his former boss and other leaders of MEND who benefited from the pipeline surveillance contracts largesse refused to allow the benefits to trickle down to junior cadre members of the gang.
During the height of the confusion, former warlords in the state, including Victor Ebi Ben (aka Boyloaf) and Paul Eris (aka Ogunboss), among others, quickly went underground and resurfaced with even thicker cordon of security guards around them.
Reacting to the incidents and claims, Sheriff Mulade, National Coordinator, Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), told our reporter that the breakdown of law and order in at least two of the eight local government areas of Bayelsa State was the clearest pointer to the failures of amnesty deal in the region.
He said, “It is unfortunate that the President’s home state has become a hot bed for militancy. Something has to be done to curtail the excesses of militant leaders who have today turned against themselves. They may turn against the society again tomorrow. That is why government needs to rise up to the challenge.”
For Mulade and other keen watchers of the unfolding drama, the power tussle between opponents of former MEND leaders like Young Shall Grow and their counterparts portend danger, not just for Bayelsa, but for the peace and stability of the Niger Delta.
If the killing of the policemen was terrifying, fresh bloodletting in the creeks has sent chill down the spine of everybody. Last Saturday, no fewer than five youths were shot dead at Lobia in Southern Ijaw LGA, under yet controversial circumstances.
Among those felled in the Lobia killing was Mr. Judah Benabi Wilson, a sibling of Pastor Wilson, a former militant leader in the area. Although initial reports indicated that the deceased were killed during gang violence, the Clifford-Wilson family of Koluama debunked the claim, stating that their son was killed while on a peace mission. They fingered a government official for his death.
Joseph Wilson, who signed a statement on behalf of the deceased’s family, described the initial report of gang clash as “twisted and distorted”. He said: “The family wants to state categorically that the late Judah is the only one related to Pastor Reuben Wilson and one of his boys, Esau, an indigene of Lobia community.
“The security agents should review the reported facts surrounding the Saturday killing at Lobia Community main town. To us, who are not security personnel, it appeared that the murdered youths were set up for ambush.”
Rumours making the rounds in the creeks support the Wilson family’s claim that there was more to the May 4 killing than gang violence. Our sources in the area said it might not be unconnected with the earlier killing of 11 policemen.
“We are all Ijaws, we know one another in the area and if anything happens it is easy for us to investigate, even better than the police or army, and get to its roots. So, if it is true that somebody feels aggrieved by that incident and he knows those responsible, it is only a matter of time before those behind it are revealed and dealt with,” our source added.
However, it was not clear how a sibling of a former militant leader, Pastor Wilson, and his ‘boy’ could be involved in the Azuzuama killings. Wilson, who leads a group of repentant militants in the area, was the first to openly condemn the incident.
He told our reporter on Friday that he strongly believed that the killer of the 11 policeman were those responsible for the killing of his brother and associate. He said, “They have also hijacked my vessel and barge with six members and are demanding N6million before they would release the boat and barge.”
He advised the police to go after the people and those responsible for the spate of killings in the state before it spreads to other people.
But Media Coordinator of the Joint Task Force, Lt. Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, insisted that the incident at Lobia was a fallout of a clash between two armed gangs. He decried the prevailing situation in the region where people defend criminals simply because they are relatives or because they benefit from the crimes.
He said, “We have our men on ground and the information we got was that it was an armed collision between two gangs. If, as the family claimed, they are not armed gangs, how did they come about the arms and ammunition we recovered from the scene?”
These are also proponents of conspiracy theory, who believe that the opposition may have infiltrated the ranks of disgruntled ex-militants in the state and are now using them to cause problem to embarrass President Jonathan.
Whatever is the cause of the prevailing insecurity in President Jonathan’s home turf, it is a cause for concern for all residents of coastal states in the region. Like the CEPEJ chief said, there are palpable fears that the canker worm of violence may spread to neighbouring Delta, Rivers and Edo states and plunge the region back into deeper militancy.
