ARMY RAIDS EFFURUN, WARRI FOR ARMS

THE Joint Task Force (JT, codenamed Operation Restore Hope on the Niger-Delta, carried out night raids in Effurun, Delta State, last night, forcing hoodlums who were jittery about their incursions in the past one week to start relocating from their abodes in Warri and Effurun.

It could not be ascertained whether there was arms haul and the number of arrests made by the JTF men who took over the notorious Jakpa Junction, Effurun, yesterday morning, forcing residents to move with their hands raised above their heads.

Commander of the JTF, Brigadier-General Nanven Rimtip, revealed that the operation was to install confidence in the people and restrain armed bandits and other criminals from making Warri uncomfortable for the citizens

The battle-ready soldiers marched from one street to the other in Effurun, but, some residents, spoken to, hinted that most of the bad boys had fled the town since they got to know that soldiers, and not police, were the ones now patrolling Warri and Effurun. “They don’t want to be arrested by these JTF people because they are tougher to handle than the police”, one of them added. The operation started about a week ago but, besides some dane guns and pump action guns, the troops had not recovered the kind of weapons, Rimtip said they were looking for.
We learnt there was intelligence information, that some miscreants moved in to Warri and Effurun lately with some sophisticated weapons with which they planned to unleash mayhem in the cities but the intervention of the JTF seemed to have affected their plans for the Easter period. JTF operatives have also raided the dens of some criminals in Effurun and Warri, particularly after one or two soldiers were alleged to have been killed by rampaging bandits.

Just last week, the minister of special duties, Elder Godsday Orubebe’s brother, who drove in his new sports utility vehicle, SUV, to a plot of land where he is putting up a structure was accosted by armed men, who snatched the vehicle at gunpoint.
Orubebe informed that it was by luck that they were able to track the car in Benin City. He said that virtually no day passes, without robbers snatching vehicles and killing people in Warri in the past few weeks. The minister added, however, that it was not peculiar to Warri and Niger-Delta and that armed robbers were operating in other parts of the country.

The JTF commander said it was not his intention that the operation should inconvenience residents of Warri and Effurun, as his men were under instructions to quit the areas as from 6.00 a.m..
“If their operation inconveniences the people, then, it is wrong because that is not my purpose. My purpose is to give them more confidence, not to make them go through hell”, he explained.

Up till about 9.00 a.m. yesterday, the soldiers made citizens to raise their hands up before passing them at the Jakpa Junction but as soon as the situation was brought to the attention of Nimtip, he ordered them back to base, saying that he had no intention of inconveniencing the people the JTF was in the area to protect.