Suspected Arrested Militant By JTF are Chevron Staff

 

THE five arrested suspected militants said to be members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) are not members of the new group, but Chevron staff, Nigerian Tribune gathered late Sunday. 
The affected staffers were said to be on a routine patrol of oil platforms on Utunama Flow Station in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State when they were picked up by the Joint Task Force (JTF).

Scores of members of the JTF were deployed in the creeks to smoke out members of the dreaded group in the wake of the claim that they were responsible for the serial bombings of oil facilities.
The arrested Chevron staffers, as gathered, were eventually dragged to the 19 Battalion, Nigerian Army base at Koko, in Warri North Local Government Area of the state.


A top military source, however, denied the arrest of any member of the new militant group on Saturday. 


Spokesman of Gbaramatu kingdom, Chief Godspower Gbenekama, confirmed the identities of the arrested persons.


He said those arrested were not militants as being bandied around by the military in the media.
Chief Gbenekama alleged that the soldiers arrested the suspects even when they saw the inscriptions of Pipeline and Facilities Surveillance Programme (PFSP) and Chevron’s logo on their speedboats.
Also, sources from Chevron said those arrested and being alleged to be members of the NDA were not militants, but casual workers on the pay roll of Chevron.


Three of the workers were from Omadino, an Itsekiri village in Warri North, while the two others are from Kokodiagbene, an Ijaw community and host to Utunana flow station in Gbaramatu kingdom.
Commander of Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS DELTA), Warri Naval Base, Commodore Raimi 

Mohammed, could not be reached as he was said to be on patrol of the creeks as of the time of filing this report, just as the state Police Public Relations Officer, Celestina Kalu, said the alleged arrest was a military affair.