Soldiers Allegedly Kill Mother, Six Months Baby, Two Others in Bayelsa Raid

I jaw youths demand intervention of international community

The alleged killing of four persons, including a mother and her six-month old baby in Oluasiri, Nembe local council of Bayelsa State, has sparked anger among Ijaw youths.

THISDAY gathered that soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force Operation Delta Safe (OpDS), who were purportedly in search of suspected militants opened fire on the victims, instantly killing four of them.

Among those confirmed dead were one Mr. Wilson Patason, Mrs. Beauty Gamage, her baby and another man whose name could not be immediately ascertained.

Calls to the Spokesman of the JTF in the region, Maj. Ibrahim Abdullahi, indicated that the phone was switched while messages were yet to be responded to at the time of putting this report together.

During the raid which occurred on Thursday, many persons were wounded and are said to be undergoing treatment for various levels of injuries, during the operation launched to dislodge the suspected militants and sea pirates allegedly hiding in the community.

However, a security source alleged that the soldiers returned fire, following attacks from the suspected militants, a claim indigenes of Oluasiri community debunked insisting that the military attack was unprovoked.

“Some suspected sea pirates and militants had been residing within the community. The armed militants were residing in the community forcefully and had become lawless which perhaps caused the security operations.

"But as you know, these boys also pay some military men and may have been tipped off by some of their military friends. They had left the community before soldiers arrived. The soldiers arrived in six gunboats and started shooting indiscriminately. It is sad and unprofessional", the source said.

However, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, has expressed anger over the killing of the mother, her child and two others.

The body maintained that the victims were a case too many of the harassment of innocent Ijaw people and communities by the JTF which it said randomly invaded areas in the region under the guise of looking for criminals.

Mr. Alfred Kemepado, Secretary General of the youth body insisted that communities in Bayelsa and the entire Niger Delta now live in perpetual fear of death since it had now become commonplace for killing of innocent and harmless children and women.