Men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) have allegedly sacked Ayakoromo village, the country home of “General” John Togo, wanted leader of the Niger-Delta Liberation Force (NDLF).
Daily Sun learnt that more than 50 people have been killed in the military operations that commenced on Wednesday.

A source within the town revealed that though Togo hails from Ayakoromo, he does not operate from the community.
The invasion, according to him, might not be unconnected with the fact that men of the JTF could not lay their hands on Togo when they raided his camps in Ayakoromo and Okirika on Wednesday.

The JTF had on Tuesday declared Togo wanted and warned people habouring him to turn him in to avoid being caught in the crossfire with the ex-militants. When Togo could not be arrested, the JTF led by Major-General Charles Omoregie, reportedly overran suspected camps being operated by Togo on Wednesday.

Many of Togo’s boys were said to have sustained bullets wounds in the gun duel with the JTF forces.
“The soldiers burnt half of the town till nightfall on Wednesday and they resumed the burning this morning (Thursday).
“John Togo, an indigene of Ayakoromo used to work with Tompolo. He is not happy with amnesty programme and decided to be on his own,” the source stated.

Daily Sun source in Ayakoromo community maintained that there was a shootout between the JTF and John Togo boys on Wednesday. The JTF dislodged the ex-militants with its superior arms as they employed both aerial and land attacks during the operation. Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the attack with the member representing Burutu Constituency I in the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Frank Enekorogha, the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG) and the traditional ruler of Ayakoromo community, His Royal Majesty Pere Bigborogha II (JP) Pere of Ngilebiri Mein Kingdom describing it as uncalled for.

Eneorogha said the Ayakoromo people were peace-loving and law-abiding and wondered why the JTF would direct its anger on the them. According to him, the Ayakoromo community and the JTF have been rubbing minds and fashioning ways to fish out the outlaw and unrepentant leader of the NDRF, John Togo. The lawmaker said it was unfair for JTF, which responsibility is to protect lives and property, to carry out the onslaught on Ayakoromo, a peaceful community.

“The question that bothers my mind was that, in the time past, John Togo and the JTF were dining together at the supposed camp named John Togo farm; but now they are visiting the sins of Togo on peace loving people,” he said.
Also, the traditional ruler of Ayakoromo community in his reaction in Kiagbodo said it was sad hearing that Ayakoromo community was under attack, with several persons killed and houses burnt down.

Bigborogha condemned militancy in its entirety and appealed to the JTF to withdraw their men from the community.
The royal father noted that in the world over, no one uses violence in resolving issues. Rather, they resort to the roundtable. He said those JTF have killed so far were all innocent people. He lamented that the action of the JTF was inhuman and appealed to the government to intervene in order not to wipe out the community.

The IMG in a statement signed by Comrade Andrew Elijah, the Chief of Staff to the National Coordinator, Comrade Joseph Evah, who is out of the country for medical check-up, described as “barbaric, lawless and outright terrorism against innocent Ijaw women and children” the JTF operations in Ayakoromo and surrounding communities.
The IMG said the recent JTF attacks in the area were not targeted at militants but against peace-loving Ijaws in Ayakoromo and villages around.

“The JTF mobilizing all the armed forces to bombard innocent villages in the name of looking for less that 20 militants clearly shows that JTF was only playing to the gallery to convince the oil companies and other sponsors to retain them in the region.

“We want the world to ask JTF how arms returned to militants and how did less than 20 young men regroup after accepting amnesty without the knowledge of military intelligence or SSS? What is the work of the intelligence arm of the JTF? Are Ijaw villagers suffering like the Iraqis because JTF wants to prove a point for the Federal Government and oil companies to continue to spend over $500 millions every year to maintain them instead of using such money to develop the region and bring permanent peace to our homeland?”

The group urged the United Nations to investigate the special security outfit in the Niger Delta to know the level of innocent people killed and property destroyed as well as order JTF to spend further genocide in the Ayakoromo area.
“We have not seen military men sacking communities along Lagos- Ibadan expressway because of the criminal activities of few individuals. The UN and international community should not allow JTF to use this barbaric act to justify the huge billions of naira wasted on the unconstitutional outfit,” IMG stated.

But in a swift reaction yesterday, spokesman for the JTF, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Antigha, denied allegations that the taskforce had commenced a massacre in the two communities. “These militants who the troops are searching for have just embarked on a cheap blackmail in order to paint the force black before well-meaning Nigerians,” he told Daily Sun on phone.

He explained that there was no way the JTF would go out of its operational directives to carry out massacre on innocent Nigerians who lived in the villages around the camps of the militant leader. “The blackmail is being carried out by criminals in the area who do not want the JTF to achieve its objectives. We never carried out such massacre; those who were killed so far are mainly criminals. Why should the JTF embark on such massacre? These people are Nigerians and there is no need for massacre of innocent civilians because the operation was carried out in broad daylight. We saw where we were going and we know where we were going.

“We have placed intelligence on the fleeing John Togo for over one year and we planned the operation for one month. So we could not have made such mistakes of killing innocent Nigerians or descending on a whole village,” he stressed.
Colonel Antigha who vowed that the JTT would apprehend John Togo, reminded critics of recent warning by Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Oluseyi Petinrin to residents of the communities located around the camp of the militants to relocate to avoid collateral damage.

Colonel Antigha had in a statement on Wednesday said: “As part of the ongoing operation to eliminate criminal gangs from the Niger Delta, troops of the Joint Military Task Force, Operation Restore Hope, at about 4pm Nigerian time seized the notorious John Togo’s camps located at Ayakoromo and Okirika, Delta State. The operation which lasted about an hour was undertaken by combined force of all JTF components.”


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/03/national-03-12-2010-001.htm