Few days after the President of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC WorldWide led by Barr. Rolland Oweilaemi Pereotubor called on the relevant security agencies, particularly the Joint Task Force to mop up riverine communities in Delta and Bayelsa State and rid same of criminalities, over fifty houses with several lives were said to have been destroyed and lost in Toru-Ndoro Community, in Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state where a military official was killed last week by suspected militants.
Community sources said the soldiers were alleged to be on a reprisal attack over the beheading of their colleagues last week by some ex-militants operating in the Ndoro axis.
The source who craved anonymity disclosed that an ex-militant leader from Ogulagha Kingdom, Delta State, Mr. Bonny Gawei who was said to have accompanied the beheaded security operative to Ndoro on a peace mission, was taken away by the soldiers.
Gawei’s whereabouts is still unknown.
Reacting to the development, factional President of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, Barr. Eric Omare called on President Buhari and the military authority to halt the bombardment of the communities in the Niger Delta in order to avoid a repeat of past situations in Odi, Bayelsa State and Ajapa, Ondo State.
He said that efforts were being made to bring those who beheaded the security operative to justice just as he wondered why the army decided to invade and bomb the communities.
Omare stated that while the IYC does not support the criminal activities of certain individuals in the region, it will be tantamount to gross injustice if the sins of few individuals are visited on the residents of the region.
The factional IYC leader explained that he has received several distressed calls from residents and indigenes of Toru-Ndoro community to the effect that military officers who are purportedly on a manhunt for alleged killers of a security operative have invaded and burnt more than 50 houses.
Omare condemned the alleged beheading of a security operative by some criminals operating within the Ndoro axis and affirmed strong support for all efforts to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.
He said: “We demand that the few persons who are involved in criminality should be separated from the rest of the community and made to face the full weight of the law. In most cases, the people and communities where these criminal elements operate from are usually the first victims of their criminal activities.”
”At the time of issuing this press statement, the where about of Mr. Bonny Gawei, an ex-militant leader from Ogulagha Kingdom, Delta state who accompanied the beheaded security operative to Ndoro on a peace mission is still unknown despite the fact that he too is an Ijaw.”
”The IYC, the Ijaw nation in particular and Niger Deltans in general do not support the activities of the few criminal elements. We have severally expressed our determination to work with security agencies to fish out these criminals because it is not part of our way of live.”
”However, the entire community must not be made to suffer for the crimes of few persons. If these were to be the case, then all the communities in the Boko Haram affected North East of Nigeria would have been burnt down by now.”
