Many injured as Navy storms Delta community

AT least, two persons have been reportedly
injured in alleged midnight sporadic
shootings on Monday by Navy personnel
into Naifor Island (opposite Warri), an Ijaw
community in Warri South- West Local
Government Area of Delta State.
The victims, Mr. and Mrs. Tiemo, it was
gathered, were part of Gbaramatu residents
who fled their homes during last Saturday’s
military invasion of Oporoza town to the
area for safety.







Alarmed by the incident, aggrieved villagers,
however, took the wounded victims to the
Naval Base, which is directly opposite Naifor
Island, and left them for treatment.
But the Ijaw Youth Council, the umbrella
body of Ijaw youths worldwide, in the
statement on Tuesday, said what the military
was presently doing in Ijaw communities of
Delta and Bayelsa states amounted to
genocide against their people.
The group’s spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, said
the people, especially women and children,
were in serious danger of massive death, if
they were not urgently rescued from the
rampaging soldiers.
“In parts of Ogbe-Ijoh, especially the Naifor
Island (opposite Warri), the Navy,
throughout the night of May 30th to May
31st, shot sporadically into the communities
and in the process, a couple (Mr. and Mrs.
Tiemo) were critically wounded.
“Ironically, this couple only recently ran to
Naifor Island to escape the military
onslaught. The villagers, in desperation, took
the critically injured couple to the Navy base,
where they left them for the Navy. The state
of this couple from Ayakoromo community
in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta
State is still unknown at the time of issuing
this statement”, the statement added.
Recalling a similar incident in the area about
a month ago, it stated, “Therefore, there is
no singular justification why the Navy has
decided to use that particular community as
its main target to justify the huge sum of
money allocated to them to find the
Avengers.”
It appealed to Nigerians and the United
Nations to quickly come to the rescue of the
Ijaw people in the Niger Delta.
But the Navy, in its reaction, dismissed the
allegation, saying it was a mere rumour that
cannot be substantiated.
Spokesperson for the Nigerian Navy Ship,
Lieutenant Lamu, told our correspondent on
the telephone that the report was untrue.