Suspected militant group, this weekend, allegedly ambushed a local peace keeping group – Egbema Kingdom Peace Keepers who are said to be linked with the ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, killing six of them.
The incident occurred on Benin River, Delta State.
The killing has led to a fresh lockdown of Egbema Kingdom by Joint Task Force (JTF), which had suspended the siege to the kingdom, following the attack and killing of some soldiers at a Military Base in Obodo, Warri South Local Government Area.
Chairman of Warri North Local Government Area, Hon Smart Asekutu, who spoke to Vanguard, confirmed that “six members of the Egbema Kingdom Peace Keepers were killed by the notorious militant leader, kidnapper and pirate, N.K.
“We have recovered the remains of the three and taken them to the mortuary at Warri.”
“It is not nine persons that were killed, I think they are about six, the boy has been causing security challenges for us in the local government and the present lock down by the army has the support of the local government council because security agents have to track him down before he commits more havoc,” he said.
Asekutu urged the people of Warri North to cooperate with the soldiers, saying: “The current lock-down is to track down those kidnapping people and causing trouble so that there will be peace in the area.”
He said that those who had personal relationship with the militant leader had reached out to him, but he refused to stop his atrocities, hence the soldiers had to do what they were doing now to arrest him.
“He can be in the midst of people and when soldiers open fire, innocent people will be affected, that is why we want our people to cooperate with the security agents by giving them all relevant information,” he said.
The fleeing militant leader, who defied pleas of Tompolo and Egbema leaders to stop his criminal activities went into hiding after killing the peace keepers .
Previous attempts to arrest him have failed, as he constantly gets wind of the impending plans.
It was however gathered that security dragnet has been expanded to ensure his arrest.