Nigeria: The Missing Soldiers Are Dead - Militant Leader

By Shehu Abubakar

A team of Army officers and men from the Joint Taskforce (JTF) on patrol of the creeks around Warri in Delta state were attacked by militants on Wednesday, May 13 , and two of the three gun-boats being used by the Soldiers were sunk in the encounter. A Lieutenant and ten Soldiers went missing in action following the attack. On Friday, May 15, the Soldiers launched an attack on the Militants at the creeks allegedly in search of their missing colleagues. After several days of exchange of fire, some of the identified militants took to their heels. One of the militants on the wanted list of the Soldiers who preferred to be identified simply as Preye ,spoke exclusively to Daily Trust from his hiding place in the Niger Delta Creeks and explained the cause of the on-going crisis between the militants and the Soldiers - Excerpts:

Can you introduce yourself?

I am Chief Tony Preye, a man of God and Peoples' freedom fighter.

But I understand you are Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo.

You are on your own. Call me by the name I told you, please. Do not provoke me.

The militants and JTF men have been the best of friends. What led to the on-going war between the Soldiers and the militants?

Yes, you may be right to the extent that for a very long time before the on-going massacre of innocent women, children and the aged, by Soldiers in the Niger-Delta, we really understood ourselves and there was cooperation among both the Soldiers and the militants. They all understood that we were fighting the federal government on account of activities that led to the total destruction of our land and the continuous theft of our resources and the killing of our people. Resources from the region are being carted away on a daily basis and taken abroad. Our people do not see the proceeds from the resources. Our only benefit is the health hazards our people are suffering ,as a result of the environmental degradation. Overtime, the JTF Soldiers understood all these and were expressing their sympathy to us. Since then they became close friends to the communities around. They visit our communities at will, and they share so many things with us. They respect our feelings and our laws, and we also respect them as human beings and as government agents. We mobilize ourselves in a way that we provide adequate security of lives and property of our people at the creeks. We guard the creeks 24 hours on a daily routine. Whenever people are coming into the creeks, they are either led by our people ,or they must identify themselves through some signs that we make to every person coming in here. We made sure that all the Soldiers that come here know those signs and how to respond to them. Whoever fails to respond appropriately to those signs is regarded as an enemy ,and will surely be treated as such. About two Wednesdays ago, our boys guarding the creeks saw three military gun boats carrying armed Soldiers, heading towards our camps in a very unusual manner. They made signs to them severally to know their mission, but those Soldiers could not respond. They kept coming in a very suspicious and dangerous manner. Every right thinking human being will know that they were evil and out on a dangerous mission against the community. Our men fired a gun in the air , and the Soldiers fired at our men. That was a very clear indication that they were there to destroy us. Our boys opened fire at them and sank two of the gun boats. The third one made a 'U' turn immediately and escaped. The Soldiers in the two gun boats went under the sea along with the boats. The JTF knows that their Soldiers died under their watchful eyes.

Are you saying that the missing Soldiers the authority is looking for were killed by your militants during the attack?

I think that question should better be answered by the Soldiers that ran away in the third boat, and left their colleagues when they were sinking. They are in a better position to say whether they left that place together, or if they saw them sinking before they ran away, and are now killing innocent people ,saying they are looking for the same colleagues of theirs that they left sinking. If they are seriously looking for them, they knew where they left them. They should go to the spot and dive into the sea and bring them out. They may still be there waiting for them. If they are dead, then they were actually killed by those that ran away, and refused to help them when they actually needed their help.

After the attack on the gun boats that led to the sinking of two of them and the Soldiers on board, did the militants make any effort to recover the corpses of the Soldiers from the sea?

Our primary duty then was to protect ourselves and the communities ,and not to save people that came to harm us. It was the duty of a Soldier to save his fellow Soldiers. Soldiers ran away and left their fellow Soldiers in jeopardy. Rather than admit that they were not equal to the task they had set for themselves, and admit that their inaction led to the death of their colleagues, they are busy killing innocent and armless persons claiming to be searching for their colleagues that they watched dying. It was a show of shame for the Soldiers. Let them come out and tell the world that they watched their Soldiers dying. They were helpless, they could not save them. If all the three gun boats and the Soldiers on board were all sunk and they perished, yes, we could have offered detailed explanations. But a situation where you watched your colleagues sinking, and you could not help them. You went and regrouped and returned to destroy communities over your inaction, is a pity to say the least.

The JTF Commander said his Soldiers have been authorised to kill, and that the operation will continue until they have found the missing soldiers dead or alive. Don't you think you will be doing well to the Ijaw community if your group admits killing the soldiers, and leads in the effort to recover their corpses?

You want me to do that as whom? As one of the Soldiers that watched his colleagues sinking and ran away, instead of helping to save them, or as a Soldier on the pay roll of the government that is also running away from the truth? If the government had wanted the truth from day one of this crises, they would have said okay, how did the whole thing happen? When they hear from the Soldiers and the community, government will then ask the community to assist the Soldiers in searching for the corpses. But because both the government and the military were only looking for an excuse to kill innocent people, they decide to embark on the mass killing of innocent civilians. That is why we are calling on the United Nations and other World leaders to intervene and stop the genocide. We are aware that the federal government is against our continued stay in the creeks. The government doesn't mind killing all of us to create a conducive atmosphere for the foreigners doing oil business in Nigeria. It is a pity that the government is doing all these to the detriment of the people of the Niger Delta.

What makes you think the UN or USA or any other external government or authority will support you ,when your entire activities which include militancy and kidnapping of innocent people, are criminal?

Yes, you can say that again since you have nobody in the Niger Delta, and you are not in any way suffering from what we are passing through. It is not every person that we see on the street that we are kidnapping. We only kidnap people that we know are either directly or indirectly connected to the on-going theft of our oil money. We are kidnapping them to press home our demand for freeing our devastating communities. The militancy in the region is as a result of the on-going occupation of our land by government and foreign forces that siphone our oil daily.

But the JTF has some incontrovertible evidence that your group is into the business of oil bunkering ,from where you get money and buy arms.

You are only confirming what I have said. The oil belongs to the communities. The federal government is only stealing our oil and we must stop them from doing so. If we take the oil that belongs to our community and sell, then used the money to service the community, is there anything wrong with that?

The constitution of Nigeria says the federal government and not the communities, own all the natural resources including oil. So, who gave your community ownership of the oil?

Do you have oil in the state you come from? Who owns the farms in your village? Is it not your people? So, why can't my people own the land here and everything in the land as well? I thought we have only one law for the entire country. Why should the lands in Kano belong to the people of Kano along with everything on the land, while the land in the Niger Delta be taken away from the people?

The JTF recovered assorted arms, ammunitions, military hardware, computers, internet machines; a radio allegedly used in communicating with foreign ships, pictures of your boys, their names, pictures and general information from Camp 5. Has that affected the strength of your group?

The arms they took away from the Camp 5 are just like taking a cup of water from the ocean. They have not seen anything yet. We are far better equipped than them. We have better arms than them. All those things they stole from there are outdated records that have no use. Forget about them.

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