George Onah & Jimitota Onoyume
30 December 2007
Lagos — THE Joint Task Force, JTF, yesterday, carried out aerial bombings at targeted places suspected to be hideouts of the alleged cult leader, Ateke Tom, in Okrika, Rivers State.
Confirming the development to Sunday Vanguard on phone, the JTF spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, said they acted on intelligence report that the places attacked were the alleged cultist's hideouts and armoury.
Ateke equally confirmed the air raid but boasted that the task force could not get him.Musa said that the JTF, in bombing the targets, was careful to ensure that no civilian resident sustained injury. But he was silent if any casualty was recorded on the side of Ateke and his group.
He said the attack was restricted to Dawes Island General area, in Okrika. According to the JTF spokesman, three camps operated by the alleged cult leader were in the island.
"What you heard of is just confirmatory air surveillance of Ateke Tom's camps located in the creeks along Dawes Island General area. The air surveillance, or where necessary strike, was targeted at three confirmed militant camps in the area. We are mindful of the collateral damages that our actions may cause.
"That is why we always exercise restraint in our operations. We are just trying what is practically imperative to tame the growing militant activities in that area, particularly their arms and ammunition depots", he said.
Responding to the air strike in a text message to Sunday Vanguard in Port Harcourt, yesterday, Ateke said two fighter "helicopters belonging to the JTF carried out bombing of" one of his camps along the Bonny axis. "But I was not in the camp and they cannot get me".
He went on: "This is provocation of the highest form and calls to question the sincerity of the JTF in its duties if innocent civilians could be bombed without any reason. Although no one was wounded, it was, however, targeted at me and the people who are living their normal lives without offending the security of the state or anyone.
"The Federal Government is yet to rebuild my houses which were burnt by the JTF and pay all the money looted by the soldiers and property that were removed also. I have given an ultimatum of seven days and I stand by it. I cannot be intimidated by the continuous attacks on me and my boys by agents of the Federal Government but I have a right to fight back."
Relatedly, the Action Congress, AC, in Rivers State has condemned the killing of innocent security agents by some criminals who parade themselves as militants and said it was unacceptable.
A statement by its spokesman, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, yesterday, said: "We find it unfathomable the rationale behind the recent attack and killing of some innocent policemen at the Akinama Police Station in Ahoada West Local Government Area.
"Whatever that may be the rationale behind the attack it is not acceptable to us. We are therefore condemning such a senseless attack and wish to urge the security agents not only to fish out the culprits and bring them to book but fish out also those who may have out of their wickedness instigated and sponsored such an unholy act."
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It is a welcomed development that the JTF is now mountinmg an attack on the militant instead of sitting on the defence as has been the case till now. However, attack from the air will not surfice at all. This has to be supplemented by commando raids to flush out the hideouts and arrest, among others, the foreign merceneries for interogation. It is almost certain that more hideouts will still be discovered.