Murder of 4 soldiers: Military arrests 3 Niger Delta Avengers

The Joint Military Task force on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of three of the sus-pected Niger Delta Avengers who allegedly killed four soldiers during an ambush at Nembe, Bayelsa State.

Commander of the task­force, Rear Adm Joseph Oko­jie, who confirmed this in an inter-view with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa, said the military also recov-ered a cache of arms..

Okojie said that the raid which was aimed at appre­hending the masterminds of the at-tack on a military post at Nembe jetty, took place on August 13.

He said Troops located and raided the suspects’ hideout in a camp at Saraba creek in Oki­ama Community in Okigbene in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa, where several items were re­covered.

He said after series of coor­dinated patrols, the troops on August 22, engaged the crimi-nals in a shoot-out at about 2 pm.

The commander explained that some of the militants were believed to have been killed while three suspected militants were arrested.

He said the troops also re­covered arms, ammunition and the gun boat that was carted away from the Nembe attack of August 8.

The taskforce commander said that in the mop-up opera­tion on the militants’ camp at Epebu Creek also in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, troops recovered nine AK47 rifles, one FN magazine, one container of gun powder and 1,145 rounds of 7.62mm am­munition.

He listed other recovered arms to include 2,485 rounds of 7.62mm ball Cartons, 370 rounds of 7.62mm and 1,356 rounds x7.62mm NATO am­munition.

Okojie noted that the joint task force conducted the op­eration professionally without any collateral damage.