Mike Odiegwu revisits the recent murder of 12 policemen by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, against the backdrop of government’s amnesty policy
April 5 was another black Friday in the history of a country threatened by terrorism. It was the day 12 policemen were brutally murdered along the Azuzuama waterways in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.
The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Kingsley Omire, drafted the deceased policemen to provide security at the funeral of the mother of an ex-militant leader, Mr. Kile Torughedi aka the Young Shall Grow.
Torughedi, who was the commander of the South Wing of MEND from 2002 to 2009 when he embraced the amnesty for repentant militants, is currently the Senior Special Adviser to Governor Seriake Dickson, on Marine Waterways Security.
The detachment of 15 policemen was travelling on a wooden engine boat when they were ambushed by the bandits who engaged them in a gun duel which lasted for over 40 minutes. When it ended, 12 policemen had lost their lives.
Omire was perplexed by the bloody attack which questioned the preparedness of the police to tackle the growing level of insecurity in Nigeria.
It was indeed his first baptism of fire since he assumed the command of police formations in the state. The commissioner is now saddled with the responsibility of combing the creeks to fish out the bandits who murdered his men.
The death toll is so far the highest recorded in a single incident by any security outfit in the state.
Perhaps, only the murder of seven policemen in Odi in 1999 which prompted former President Olusegun Obasanjo to authorise the military invasion of the community in Bayelsa State, could compare with it.
Observers accuse the state police chief of failing to sufficiently equip his men for the journey considering the fact that, they were travelling in a low-engine-capacity wooden boat on a day the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta threatened to resume hostilities.
In an arrangement shrouded in secrecy, it took the police four days to convey the decomposing bodies of some of the victims of the attack to the Federal Medical Centre mortuary in Yenagoa.
The bodies were reportedly mutilated with some of them burnt by the attackers who allegedly stripped the victims of their uniforms and rifles.
Despite pockets of infractions such as sea robbery and kidnappings along the waterways, nobody including Omire had anticipated the quick return of militancy in a region just recovering from a near war situation.
Observers fear that this brazen attack on the police could signal a return to hostilities despite the presidential amnesty programme which has so far gulped billions of naira.
They conclude that such violent attacks will only demonstrate the futility of the use of presidential amnesty as a solution to any form of insurgency including the Boko Haram crisis.
MEND had vowed to resume hostilities with a series of attacks codenamed Hurricane Exodus. The militant group had in a statement signed by its spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, said the attacks would be “a direct repercussion of a forged threat letter contrived by the Nigerian and South African governments purporting to have originated from MEND.
“This fake letter was used as evidence against Henry Okah on whom a 13-year sentence was passed. “We are now determined to convert this imaginary trumped-up threat into a painful reality”, the group had said.
But security agencies including the Joint Task Force codenamed Operation Pulo Shield dismissed the threat believing that MEND had no capacity to carry out such attacks considering that its ranks had been depleted by the amnesty programme.
The Media Coordinator, JTF, Lt. Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said its operatives in the five sectors of its command had been placed on red alert to forestall resurgence of violence in the region.
Nwachukwu said, “Niger Deltans are not in any bondage and therefore do not require armed struggle or emancipation as claimed by this threatening gang.
“What Niger Deltans are in a dire need of now, is peace for sustainable development having emerged from the dark days of turbulence in the region.
“Informed by this development, we have effected some redeployment to tackle any upheaval. These sets of people are advised to toe the line of law and order in addressing whatever grievance they have and to desist from any action that will upset the peace and development of the Niger Delta.”
Despite these assurances, MEND carried out its threat on the day it said it would. As expected, the militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and wondered why security agencies including the JTF dismissed its Hurricane Exodus as an empty threat.
Curiously, Omire after dilly-dallying said the attack had nothing to do with the threats issued by MEND. According to him, intelligence revealed that disgruntled elements within the fold of Torughedi were the brains behind the dastardly act.
He said, “We have confirmed that the people who attacked the police are part of the disgruntled group of Mr. Young, ex-militant who is presently enjoying the Federal Government’s amnesty.
“Intelligence has revealed very clearly that this disgruntled group within Mr. Young’s camp was short-changed in the payment of the amnesty fund. It was not to the knowledge of the police that we have such group that had made up their mind to dispute the burial.”
Similarly, Dickson in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said there was no iota of truth in the claim by MEND.
He said the “Government will do everything humanly possible to bring the culprits to book”.
“Government cannot fold its arms and watch people take the law into their own hands for whatever reason. Government will not relent until acts of criminality and lawlessness are completely eliminated in the state.
“For the umpteenth time, government is warning our youths and their collaborators, who take delight in kidnapping, maiming and taking the lives of innocent and law abiding citizens to turn a new leaf or have themselves to blame, because nobody will be spared,” he said.
In a dramatic twist, an aggrieved ex-militant group led by one Gen, Jasper Adaka Boro the junior of Niger Delta, also claimed responsibility for the attack blaming it on the refusal of Torughedi, to empower his foot soldiers.
Boro through a text message circulated in the region described the killing of the 12 policemen as a tip of the iceberg.
He said the attack was designed to warn Torughedi accused of deducting their monthly allowances.
He also complained that Torughedi had sidelined them in the pipeline surveillance contract handled by Bajero in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
He further alleged that the former creek warlord embezzled N80m he received from the government to buy cars for his commanders.
“Let the Federal and the Bayelsa State government come to our aid. If not, l will blow some flow stations in the region. It is an arms struggle. We just started. The government should tell him to empower his boys. I am not afraid”, he said.
The attack has also jolted Ijaw leaders, political parties and other ex-militant leaders whose stock in trade is to flaunt their amnesty wealth.
The state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria described the killing of the policemen as most unfortunate.
The party’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Christopher Abarawo, referred to it as sad and a serious threat to security in the country.
The party said, “ACN calls on the state and Federal Government not to treat the attack with kid gloves but be more proactive and decisive in handling the security challenges facing the nation.”
Also, the state Coordinator, the Environmental Rights Action, Mr. Alagoa Morris, observed that after the Presidential amnesty offered to ex-militants, there was some respite and return of relative peace to the creeks of Bayelsa State.
“However, there is an upsurge in criminal activities in the creeks in recent times. The creeks, it had been observed, was becoming unsafe to travellers on our waterways as the incidents of piracy and kidnap have resurfaced,” Morris, who was a former Secretary of the Civil Liberty Organisation, said.
He added, “The recent killing of policemen was received with disbelief.
No matter the reasons adduced for this recent attack and killing of the police men, it remains unacceptable.
“It is not only sad, but unfortunate that MEND is claiming responsibility for the killings which, to some discerning minds is diversionary. The killing is barbaric and criminal and suspects should be treated accordingly. It would not be out of place to suggest that military formations be established in such environments known as axis of criminality and violence in the state.”
Despite the claims and counterclaims of responsibilities for the unfortunate killing of the policemen, the grim reality is that the region is in danger of witnessing another phase of violence.
The Federal Government, most political scientists believe, should explore a lasting solution to insurgency and militancy in the country instead of depending on Presidential amnesty to curb criminality.