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Nigeria: Bayelsa Killings - JTF Launches Manhunt for Legislator
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This Day (Lagos)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Segun James
Yenagoa
Security operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta are now on the trail of a lawmaker in connection with the killing of seven persons including three soldiers at the Obioku community along the Nembe Creek in Bayelsa State last week.
The killing was said to have been carried out by a wanted kingpin of a cult group to which the legislator is a leader and patron.
The decision to trail the legislator followed the discovery of the remaining bodies of the occupants of the boat and the identification of the corpses.
The legislator narrowly escaped arrest at Gloryland Cultural Centre in Yenagoa yesterday as he made good his escape before the arrival of soldiers deployed to arrest him.
The man was at the Cultural Centre to witness the INEC delineation exercise when words of his possible arrest got to him.
He was recently at loggerheads with the traditional ruler, a known oil industry technocrat and former top government official over his call for the removal of soldiers from Nembe.
Obioku community after a frantic search under threat of a military invasion were able to find the bodies and apprehended a suspect who confirmed that killing was done by a notorious and wanted killer who had since escaped to Rivers State.
Confirming the latest development, the Commander of the JTF in Bayelsa, Lt-Col. Chris Musa identified the man as Woki Abralafu alias Kitikata from Odioma, a neighbouring community to Obioku.
Musa in a message to THISDAY confirming the recovery of the bodies said "The JTF in conjunction with the Obioku Community members have recovered the remains of our own three soldiers and two civilians murdered along the Obioku/Nembe waterways. They were all murdered in cold blood and their bodies hidden in the creeks .It was the stench that led us to the location.
It would be recalled that both community engaged themselves in a fratricidal war in 2005 where hundreds of people were killed and property worth millions of naira destroyed.
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During the war, a number of soldiers were killed a situation which led to the destruction of Odioma by irate soldiers.
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