- Orders immediate demolition of vandal’s buildings
Set to deploy ground troops for mop-up
Chiemelie Ezeobi
In two separate operations, the Inspector General (IG) of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Fergusson Bobai, on Thursday visited the dreaded creeks in Lagos and Ogun States, formerly occupied by notorious pipeline vandals.
While the IG had gone straight to Ishawo in Ikorodu to see the extent the Operation Awatse Joint Task Force had gone, the FOC had however extended his tour not just as far as Ishawo but to Arepo, Ibafo and Elepete.
Bobai, who is the chairman of the JTF, reiterated the resolve of the military to rid the area of their responsibility of pipeline vandals, who inflict economic sabotage on the nation’s resources.
He also said that given the numerous successes recorded by the joint task force, they were encouraged to sustain the operation and ensure that all the books and crannies of the creeks were scoured.
Following the success of the several aerial bombardments, the ground troops would be deployed to enter the hinterland part of the creeks and mop up the remaining suspects
He said, “We went for an on-the-spot assessment and following the success of the aerial bombardment by the Air Force, the ground troops will now be deployed to go in and mop up.
“So far, the operation has been successful with the arrest of 11 suspects so far in our custody. We will sustain the tempo however. The job is not over yet. But be rest assured, we will finish it.”
On the other hand, the IG ordered for the immediate demolition of houses used by pipeline vandals in the Ikorodu area of Lagos after some of the buildings used to siphon fuel were discovered by the JTF.
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The IG who was on an on-the-spot assessment of Ishawo, said so far, two locally made guns, two generating sets, eight Dane guns, 32 live ammunition, two laptops, a General Purpose Machine Gun(GPMG) magazine, AK 47 rifle , I8 cutlasses, Police badges and voters cards were recovered from the houses.
He said with the recovery, the police would be able to trace the suspects as the account numbers of the depository and the banks were known.
