Channel 366

•’Why Kuku, Asari-Dokubo, others can’t be arrested’

SECURITY operatives yesterday announced what they suffered in the ill-fated raid on the hideout of Ombatse cult group in Nasarawa State.

The police lost 46 men while the State Security Service (SSS) lost all the 10 men deployed in the joint operation that went awry last Thusday.

The details were given in a statement jointly signed by defence and security information managers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, SSS and the police.

Their clarification came even as they gave those calling for the arrest and investigation of ex-Niger Delta militant, Mujaheed Asari-Dokubo and Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kinsley Kuku, a disappointing response.

The information managers said the duo and several others issuing sectional threats over the 2015 presidency were merely exercising their freedom of speech.

They said such rights enjoy constitutional backing and that clamping down on them would amount to gagging them and infringing on their human rights, saying that such a development might pit the government against the media and the human rights community.

The Director of Navy Information, Commodore Kabiru Aliyu said: “We are in democracy and so, it is not easy to gag members of the public. If we do so, the media and the human rights community will complain about infringing on the fundamental rights of the citizenry.”

Dokubo and Kuku were reported to have stated penultimate week that the Niger Delta region would take up arms if President Goodluck Jonathan failed to get re-election in 2015.

He went further to challenge the nation’s security agencies to arrest him if they could, threatening national economic havoc in the oil producing areas.

The Defence and Security Information Managers is made up of the Director of Defence Information, spokespersons of the Army, Air Force, Navy, State Security Service (SSS) and the police.

The Duputy Force spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, who represented the police, said out of the 47 police officers sent to Nasarawa State in the operation to dislodge members of an ethnic militia cult, 46 of them were killed.

SSS spokesperson, Ms. Marilyn Ogar said all the 10 officers of the Service who went on the mission were also killed by the ethnic militia group.

Mba added that 32 bodies had been released for burial; while Ogar said the SSS had only recovered bodies of four of its 10 officers killed.

Mba and Ms Ogar attributed the high security casualties to what they described as the decision of the police and the SSS to exercise restraint by applying minimum force during the operation.

According to them, it was a low profile civil operation that should be deployed while dealing with unarmed members of the public, stressing that it was not a security onslaught as being seen by a section of the public.

The spokespersons dismissed reports that 10 local government areas in Borno State had been taken over by Boko Haram insurgents, insisting that the state has not lost any of its council areas to the sect members.

Defence spokesman, Brigadier Chris Olukolade, who chaired the briefing, said troops were deployed in flash points across the nation, including oil installation facilities.

He added that security surveillance was also ongoing, covering the land, air space and water ways.

The statement jointly signed by the information managers said: “Accordingly, the operational designs for restoring peace, law and order have involved the deployment of the assets of Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigeria Police, Department of State Security and other security agencies in the country.

“Internal security operations in the form of vigilance and patrols on land, sea, and air are being conducted regularly in order to deny militants and criminal gangs any freedom of action as they desire.

“Troops and operatives have been physically deployed in various flash points all over the country and on critical oil and gas facilities to protect them from attack. Cordon and search operations are also regularly undertaken to check the capacity of the gangs and checkmate their activities.

“Jointly, the Services have been conducting anti-kidnapping operations cordon and search, destruction of militant camps, security for oil and gas facilities, anti illegal oil bunkering patrols as well as anti banditry, anti piracy operations and arrest of terrorists of all shad among others.”

They, however, admitted the frightening dimension in the nation’s security challenges, saying it is a clear threat to safety and national security.

They pleaded for cooperation from members of the public in terms of providing useful security information that could aid the operations of their men in the fight against terrorism and other criminal acts.

Present at the briefing were spokespersons for Defence (Olukolade); Navy (Aliyu); Air Force (Yusuf Anas); Police (Mba); and SSS (Ms Ogar).