Ghana Pundit: Nigeria: Search for 18 Missing Soldiers Continues

By Emma Amaize

Warri - COMMANDER of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta, Major-General Sarkin Yarkin-Bello said all was quiet in Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, yesterday, but the task force has intensified intelligence gathering for the 18 missing-in-action (MIA) soldiers and the militants responsible for their disappearance.

Major-General Yarkin-Bello who spoke in an interview with Saturday Vanguard, however, said, "Our patrols are going on, both on air and maritime", adding that one of the reasons the task force wants the fleeing leader of Camp 5, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, whose boys carried out the attack on the soldiers dead or alive was for him to give it intelligence information on the where the soldiers would be found.

But spokesman of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), Jomo Gbomo who was contacted by Saturday Vanguard on the whereabouts of the MIA soldiers said, "They were over twenty persons in total in the two gun boats that were sunk and all the occupants were killed.

The Lt. Col happens to be the son of former Head of State (names withheld) What prompted the clash was that on sighting the three gunboats approaching the area towards the festival, Tompolo was alerted but instructed that there should be no hostilities except the gunboats be watched closely. It was after the gunboats opened fire on our boys that they attacked them from the rear and flanks".

His words, "We carried out a precision ambush, opened the bowels of the soldiers so they do not float and the crabs will have a meal. We have taken responsibility and that is okay with us. The army always denies everything but since the men have families, the truth cannot be hidden for long".

Another source close to the defunct Camp 5 told Saturday Vanguard, "The truth of the matter is that the soldiers are dead, I don't know where the corpses are, this incident of clash of the soldiers with our boys happened on Wednesday, May 13, when they sunk the gunboat of the soldiers, you would not have expected any of the boys to carry the corpses of the soldiers because it is not their own, they left it there and you know that under normal circumstances, the corpses would have to float later or a search party would be organized to search for the bodies".

"But the situation was not normal; there was no search party, as everybody was running for his life. If the bodies floated, they would have been carried away far into the sea where no one could see it or eaten up by sharks, big sharks, that is what happens in the River, we are in the River and we know what happens when a dead corpse is left for a long time like in this case.

"Nobody took the corpses of the soldiers away so the JTF should stop chasing people away from their homes over what they know nothing about. If not for the decision of the JTF to bombard the communities first, the villagers would have helped to organized a search party to look for the bodies but I think it is too late now", he added.

Major-General Yarkin-Bello who told newsmen that a soldier is never declared dead in the military unless his corpse was seen and certified said the Cordon and Search operation continues.

He said there was nothing as good as peace, adding, "A situation where everybody carries arms like the boys in Gbaramatu and other parts of the Niger-Delta were doing, everybody will be consumed when something happens".

The JTF commander said with the way things were going in Camp 5, it would have reached a situation where somebody would want to overthrow Tompolo and become the leader, just like it had happened in other militant dens and a lot of blood would be shed, including those of innocent people in the communities.

He said a situation where so many people carried guns illegally, even disputes that ought to have been settled on a roundtable would be resolved with arms because the people were armed.

Original Source:
Original date published: 30 May 2009