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news
update
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Bunkering:
JTF to Go after Retired Generals |
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From Omon-Julius Onabu in
Warri, 03.31.2009 Thisday |
The new helmsman of the reconstituted Joint Task
Force (JTF), code-named Operation Restore Hope,
Major-Gen Sarkin Yaki Bello, has vowed to go after
retired generals and military officers involved in
illegal bunkering of oil.
Bello made the remarks while briefing newsmen in
Warri, Delta State, yesterday on the restructured
task force, which is now headquartered in Yenagoa,
Bayelsa State.
He also promised to take “with a pinch of salt”
unilateral ceasefire declaration by the Ijaw Youth
Council (IYC) on Sunday, which the group had said
would lead to the shutting down of their militant
camps.
He said he was not worried that retired military
generals are accused of spearheading the spate of
illegal bunkering in the region, adding that the JTF
does not hold anybody as sacred cows but has the
federal mandate to put an end to “illegal bunkering,
vandalism and other forms of criminality in the
oil-rich region”.
The worrisome levels of militancy and proliferation
of arms in the Niger Delta have been widely
attributed to the involvement of highly placed
persons who have remained elusive in the face of
huge crude oil losses to the nation.
However, Bello assured Nigerians that the Federal
Government is determined to stop illegal oil
bunkering, maintaining that the JTF would deal
equally with anyone caught in the act whether he is
retired military officer or not.
On the promise by the militants to lay down their
arms, apparently in response to the Federal
Government’s peace process for the region, he said
such declaration would only be appreciated in
practical terms if all forms of attack on military
positions and personnel, oil and gas as well as
other installations cease completely.
According to Bello, while peace remained the desire
and goal of the Federal Government’s establishment
of the JTF, the soldiers and security personnel
would continue to respond militarily to any attack
on the JTF or oil installations.
Bello, who said the changes in the formation of task
force, which involved the merging of the two
separate units of the JTF for Delta/Bayelsa State
and Rivers State, respectively, would not undermine
the effective operations of the security outfit.
He said: “There is no better thing in human life
than peace. Without peace, no form of development
whatever is possible.
“Some of us have had the opportunity to visit places
of war like Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and
you do not wish your country to go through that
bitter experience. So, it is in that light that I
was happy about the IYC’s decision.”
Bello, however, said the apprehension in militants’
camps was unfounded as the JTF would not launch any
attack on the militants unless they became the
aggressor by attacking the task force and oil
facilities.
“My subsisting instruction to my soldiers and men is
simple: any attack on any facility whatsoever should
be followed by appropriate military response,” he
said, wondering if indeed the militants have stopped
attacking security points or oil installations.
Meanwhile, the naval authorities are preparing to
launched two new 38-metre Fast Patrol Craft (FPCs)
and three new Augusta helicopter gunships, armaments
which many militants are said to be apprehensive
might be used by the JTF specifically against them.
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