DAY SEVEN OF THE NIGER DELTA WAR: Militants Flee Camps
May 20, 2009 15:24 (4 hours ago), 365 views

By Michael  Mukwuzi
Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, have fled their camps to save the movement from possible extinction following incessant raids by vengeful soldiers of the Joint Military Task Force.

As fighting enters the seventh day, military men are bent on extracting their pound of flesh after the earlier killing of some JTF officers and men. Faced with superior tactics and fire power of the federal forces, the militants have deserted their camps, leaving JTF to roam the area without let or hindrance. To further smoke out the militants, the JTF has also engaged the services of informants to fish out militants from their hideouts, according to JTF spokesman, Col. Rabe Abubakar, in an interview today, with Agence France Presse, AFP.
Joint Task Force (JTF) spokesman, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said government troops have moved into the outskirts of some communities where suspected militants were hiding and still holding expatriates kidnapped last week. “Our actions are based on credible information about certain places where we know that these miscreants are hiding,” he said, in a statement released late Tuesday. Abubakar urged residents of the communities to provide the military with further information that could lead to the arrest of the militants.
“You know these people and they live within you. To avoid the innocent being inconvenienced, we call on all of you to aid in the extradition of these miscreants for your safety and interest,” he said. “What we are doing today is an extension of the operations we started five days ago and our aim is to rescue expatriates kidnapped and get rid of criminals in various comminutes in the Niger Delta,” Abubakar underlined. To consolidate its stranglehold, the  JTF is now embarking on power show to transform their superiority to supremacy. “They came to Okerenkoko yesterday and were shooting freely into the air to scare people. Unfortunately for them, there was nobody to fight with them so they eventually left,” said a resident of the area.

Meanwhile, knocks have come for MEND from some prominent Ijaw leaders and groups who accuse the group of plunging the Ijaw nation into an unnecessary war. Speaking on behalf of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, FNDIC, Dr. Oboko Bello noted that. “I strongly advise MEND and their political beneficiaries rendering the Ijaw vulnerable to please stay off Gbaramatu Kingdom as the Ijaw of Gbaramatu are not part and parcel of any declaration of war with the Nigerian nation state.”

According to him, “the Ijaw of Warri believe in the Ijaw National Congress (INC) for the Niger Delta struggle for Federalism; the Ijaw of Warri believe in the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) for the Ijaw struggle for total resource control; and the Ijaw of Warri are in the struggle for democracy and equal political space all of which are issues of reconciliation in the ongoing engagements with the federal and state governments. However, a group known as the Warri Interest Group (WIG), has commended what it termed the swift efforts of president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), and operatives of the JTF in the Niger Delta region, over its ongoing confrontation with militants and criminals in the three Warri Local Government Council Areas of Delta state masquerading as freedom fighters.

It condemned governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s appeal to president Yar’Adua to ask the JTF to halt further military actions against the heavily armed militants. Speaking on behalf of the group, Comrade Alex Eyengho stated thus: “We welcome and indeed encourage the contemplation by the JTF to acquire the captured Camp 5 (the operational den of Tompolo), and use same as an operational base for the military. “We have consistently said it in the past that peace would continue to elude the riverine areas of the three Warri Council Areas, and indeed the Niger Delta region, until battle-ready military bases are located in strategic points in the area.”

http://thepmnews.com/2009/05/20/day-7-of-niger-delta-war-militants-flee-camps

Now set another "Assassin Squad" to hunt them down and kill them all.