JTF kills 4 suspected pirates in Rivers

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt - 25.03.2008

Four suspected sea pirates were reported killed and one injured in a shootout between a gang of pirates and men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) around Isaka, in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Monday.

Security sources said the shootout ensued when a troop meant to patrol the area ran into two speedboats loaded with armed men, who engaged the JTF men immediately they saw them.

According to a senior security source, about 12 armed hoodlums had, on Friday, hijacked a barge loaded with petrol and a gunboat and had taken them to Alakin River to conceal it from being discovered by security operatives. This ,however, led to the JTF sending some of its men to keep watch over the waterway, especially having received security reports on the location of the hijacked barge and gunboat.

But the pirates were met on Monday by men of the JTF who were on a patrol of the area when they were trying to move the hijacked effects from Alakin to their main hideout in Dawes Island, still in the Okrika region of the state.

“Troops were assigned”, the security source informed, “to monitor the activities of the bandits immediately after the seizure of the barge and tugboat. Intelligence report had also shown that they were hiding at Alakin.

“But this morning, the troops confronted them just as they were trying to move through the Dawes Island with the seizure. There was a heavy shoot out which resulted in the sinking of the speedboats used by the militants.

“Four of the militants were killed while one was seriously injured. He has been arrested. The JTF is on top of the situation,” he said. The spokesman of the JTF, who is also the Army Public Relations Officer of the 2 Amphibious Brigade, Port Harcourt, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, confirmed the development when reached on the telephone in Port Harcourt on Monday.

He said about four of the hoodlums were feared dead with one of them wounded and arrested by the JTF men. “Our gunboat which was patrolling Isaka area based on intelligence report, ran into the militants this morning.

They opened fire on our men but we responded with heavy gunfire resulting in the death of four of their men,” he said.