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Nigeria: Niger Delta - Manhunt for Soldiers' Killers Begins
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Daily Champion (Lagos)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Dennis Naku
Yenagoa
The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) has begun a manhunt for one Woki Abralaful who allgedly masterminded the killing of three soldiers and four civilians who were attacked along the Nembe creek in Bayelsa State last week.
"He has been declared wanted," the command said.
The command also said it has recovered the remains of six of the victims, including three soldiers and two civilians during an intensive search in conjunction with the people of Obioku community where the incident occurred.
The state commander of the JTF, Lt. Col. Chris Musa who disclosed this to Daily Champion in Yenagoa, through a text message, stated the travellers were murdered in cold blood, after which their bodies were hidden in the creeks.
Musa further stated that it was the stench oozing from the victims that led the search party to the location where the corpses were concealed. He said: "The killer is identified as one Woki Abralafu, alias Kitikata."
Musa said that the killer hails from Odioma, a sister community to Obioku, where the killing took place, adding that Kitikata has been ostracized from the area by his people, after he killed 12 councilors shortly after a peace talk involving the two communities in 2005.
He continued that the killing of the councilors was among the reasons that sparked a bloody communal clash between Obioku and Odioma which claimed many lives same year.
Daily Champion recalls that the 12 councilors were traveling from Nembe to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital before meeting being murdered in February, 2005.
According to Lt. Col. Musa, "He (Kitikata) has immediately absconded to Rivers State and said to be in Fara's (a notorious militant's) camp located in Kula.
"We are liaising with Operation Flush ( an arm of the JTF in Rivers State ) in order to arrest him and his cohorts. He is declared wanted together with anyone harbouring him," Musa added.
He however lamented that the fugitive has been variously sponsored and protected by, "his God father, a well known militant sympathizer who has been agitating for the withdrawal of the JTF troops in Nembe. The rule of law would prevail," he declared.
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Meanwhile, the remains of the three soldiers and six other travelers have since been deposited in the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), in Yenagoa, the state capital, Daily Champion leant.
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