Warri — 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.





These men ran our country for the last 50 years. Good times.