No fewer than seven suspected militants were Saturday arrested including large scale of explosives, arms and ammunitions recovered when military personnel stormed various hideouts of former militant leader Chief Government Ekpemupolo a.k.a. Tompolo at Oporoza community in Warri South West Council Area of Delta State.
It was learnt that men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Pulo Shield stormed the place unnoticed at about 2:30am and made the arrests, recovered some explosives of various shape and ammunitions.
It would be recalled that an earlier operation carried out last on Friday subsequently led to the arrest of one of the suspect believed to be the brain behind series of attacks on oil and gas facilities in the creeks of Delta state. The suspect was reportedly handed over to the navy, who in turn immediately dispatched him to Abuja for interrogation.
Revelation emerged that militants under the name of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) had in recent times intensified attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Delta creeks, significantly reducing the nation’s crude export and gas production, also shutting down Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) swamp operation effectively.
Dependable source, particularly from the community and military sources have confirmed Saturday’s early morning operation in Oporoza which devastated series of buildings just as inhabitants of the area ran to neighbouring communities for safety.
While some Ijaw sources claimed that the operation was an attack on Oporoza community, which they described as brutalisation and abuse of residents, including women and children, military and other sources said it was an ongoing operation targeted at specific points.
A community source, who did not want to be named said it was an operation on ‘Tompolo’s location’, adding that he learned arrests were made, but was not sure if the ex-militant leader, who has been engaged in a running battle with the federal government, was one of those arrested.
“There was an attack on Tompolo’s location and arrests were made. Not specifically Oporoza, but where Tompolo is suspected to be hiding. Whether he was part of those arrested is what we don’t know”, he said.
Although, all efforts to get official military confirmation were unsuccessful, a very reliable military source in Delta confirmed that seven suspects were arrested in the midnight operation, adding that recovery of explosives, arms and ammunition were also made.
The source, who said that the operation was ongoing and would still last a while, also revealed that an earlier arrest had been made on Friday, adding that the suspect, whose identity he refused to reveal, had been relocated to Abuja almost immediately.
“The operation is ongoing, seven suspects have already been arrested including the explosives they use in detonating, arms and ammunition were recovered. I won’t say the exact point where operations are happening for now, but we are around the villages to recover all the explosives, equipment used in blowing pipelines and, if possible, arrest all the culprits.
“Now we are everywhere and we are out for them. Yesterday we were able to get one, although he was handed over to the Navy and they flew him to Abuja immediately”, the source said.
Meanwhile, efforts to get official responses could not yield results as at the time of filing this report just as the Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Commodore Raimi Mohammed, said he was not aware of the operation and the spokesman of the JTF, Colonel Isa Ado, refused to pick call or respond to text messages sent to him.
