THERE was commotion on Monday night in
Yeghe community, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State as
soldiers raided the house of a former militant, Solomon Ndigbara.
It was learnt that the house of the former warlord was razed by the soldiers, even as the heavy shooting continued in the area.
Indigenes of the community were said to
have abandoned their homes and fled to neighbouring communities as the
soldiers took over Ndigbara’s house and its surroundings.
It was gathered that the army operations
were extended to Khana Local Government Area even as some people were
said to have been injured while scampering to safety.
Sources said that some youths working
for the former militant leader had set ablaze the campaign office of the
Rivers South-East senatorial candidate of the All Progressives
Congress, Senator Magnus Abe, in Bori, Khana LGA.
The attack on Abe’s campaign office,
according to a community source, was in retaliation of the soldiers’
raid of Ndigbara residence.
When contacted, the Public Relations
Officer, 2 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Captain Eli
Lazarus, said there was an ongoing military operation by the Army in
Gokana, promising that the media would soon be briefed on the matter.
Also, the media assistant to Abe said he
would soon send a press statement on the development in Khana Local
Government Area. He had yet to respond as of the time of filing this
report on Monday night
Meanwhile, the Presidential Amnesty
Office said that it has recovered 14,447 weapons from some ex-militants
of the Niger Delta who embraced the presidential amnesty programne.
A statement from the Amnesty Office
stated that the office also facilitated the destruction of the last
cache of 48,401 rounds of small arms and medium calibre ammunition
surrendered by the ex-militants during the disarmament phase of the
programme.
It was stated that the destruction of
the arms and ammunition which held under the second phase of ‘Exercise
Thunder Peace’ took place at the 6 battalion of the Nigerian Army, Akwa
Ibom.
It was added that the exercise was
supervised by the Nigerian Army, the Office of the National Security
Adviser and the Akwa Ibom State Government.
The Coordinator of the Amnesty
Programme, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh, was quoted as saying that the exercise
indicated the commitment of the people of the Niger Delta to lasting
peace.
He added, “No amount of time, no amount
of stress, no amount of energy, no amount of resources is considered
excessive in the drive to achieve sustainable peace in the Niger Delta.”
The statement quoted the officer in
charge of exercise Thunder Peace, Maj. M.B. Grema, as saying that the
arms and ammunition were recovered from militants who surrendered in
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Ondo states.
“We had shredded the previously
recovered arms from the first phase of the exercise to generate a total
of 62.7 tons of metals,” he was quoted as having said.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor , Udom
Emmanuel, was represented at the event by the Secretary to the state
government, Mr. Etekamba Umoren.
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