Three Arrested for Murder of 12 Policemen in Bayelsa

Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar

Following the killing of 12 policemen by aggrieved militants in the creeks and waterways of Bayelsa State, the police in conjunction with operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Wednesday arrested three members of the group who allegedly carried out the killing.

The policemen, who were among a 50-man contingent deployed in Azuzama to provide security at the   burial of the mother of a repentant Niger Delta warlord, Kile Selky Torughedi, alias General Young Shall Grow, were killed in an ambush in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

The bodies of 10 of the slain policemen were recovered Tuesday and deposited at the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

THISDAY gathered that a team from the JTF, which was deployed in the dense mangrove rain forest of the delta, discovered the hideout of the militants during a patrol of the area.

The militants were reportedly arrested after some feeble resistance during the early morning raid on their camp. The three men, who were left to guard the camp, were later handed over to the police by the JTF Wednesday afternoon.

One of the militants is said to hail from a neighbouring community to Azuzama, while the other two are from Delta State and were formerly members of the John Togo gang.

All of them are of the Ijaw ethnic stock.

The state police spokesman, Mr. Alex Akhigbe, refused to confirm or deny the arrest.

Akhigbe said: “These are critical security issues and we don’t want to alert anybody to what we are doing for now. We don’t want to make it a public issue. 

“At the appropriate time, we will let the public know the number of people arrested.”

However, THISDAY was made to understand that the police in company with JTF operatives Wednesday stormed the home of Torughedi, who had not left his country home since the killing of the policemen, out of fear that he might be attacked on his way to Yenagoa.

He was said to have confirmed that his former field commander, Commander Virus, 30, had carried out the attack that claimed the lives of the 12 policemen.

Torughedi was said to have been moved to Yenagoa by the JTF Wednesday after their visit.

According to a military source, contrary to what the police had informed the public shortly after the attack, the assailants were waiting at the jetty in the community when they opened fire on the policemen as they disembarked from their boat. 

Meanwhile, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) has condemned the killing of the 12 policemen.

The INC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Victor Burubo, described the killing as unfortunate and dastardly.

He said to show the position of the Ijaw people on the issue, the INC President, Senator Tari Sekibo, and other leaders of the Ijaw nation had already paid a condolence visit to the state police boss, Kingsley Omire.