AN Ijaw group under the auspices of Ijaw People’s Developement Initiative ,IPDI, has threatened to petition the chief of naval staff over extra-judicial killings of one Mr Pius Bernard from Tebujor community in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South west Local Government Area, Delta State on 25th March, 2016 Thursday’s night.
The deceased was said to be sand scooper who was shot dead at the course of duty. He was killed at a jetty at Tebujor, Okpeleama community unprovoked by a trigger happy naval ratings.
Tension heightened as angered relations and sympathizers threatened to avenge for the unlawful killing of Mr Pius Bernard if the government failed to unveil the killer naval officers.
Speaking with newsmen, IPDI, national president comrade Austin Ozobo angrily said there is no justification in the extra-judicial killing of Mr Bernard and that the chief of naval staff should institute an inquest to properly unfold the perpetrators and they should be made to face the wrath of the law before indigenes resort to self-help.
He further asserted that on no account the navy who are to protect innocent citizens and properties in the country resort to this barbaric killing and that the act is a plot to provoke the kingdom as to provides a ground for the military to bombard the kingdom again.
Moses Yabrade,Tebujor /Okpelama community chairman,
told journalists that the late Pius was
scooping sand at the jetty when a naval officer he
identified as Izonfade Kenneth led other naval men to the
area and shot at their son unprovoked, who in turn fell into
the river and died.
The Navy officer who is incidentally an Ijaw, regularly
patrolled the vicinity in a gunboat following recent
vandalization of major pipelines in the waterways of Warri
South West Council, Yabrade narrated.
The chairman further explained; “The
incident happened at about 10pm Thursday night. Pius
was scooping sand and it is a normal commercial activity
at such quiet time when fishermen also ply their trade.
The victim was alerted by folks that his sand boat on a 40
horsepower engine at the Jetty was drifting.
“He then rushed back and was pulling it back ashore with
another boat. That was the point Izonfade patrolled in with
other colleagues in a gunboat. After shooting and killing
him he moved into the community bragging about the act
and threatening to shoot another person if he does not get
gratification.
“He was offered N5000 before he joined his colleagues in
the waiting gunboat and they disappeared, leaving us to
mourn our dead. Incidentally, the shooter is an Ijaw man
we initially see as one of us, but he and his colleagues
have been terrorizing us. The officer must be brought to
book or we will take to self-help.”
Ozobo further called on the president Muhammadu Buhari, the senate president, Bukola Saraki, speaker house of representatives, the chief of naval staff and the executive governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa to urgently intervene, in a view of instituting an inquest to unfold culprits of the sheer murder of Mr Pius Bernard and ensure that they are prosecuted for the dastardly act before it may snowballed to unnecessary provocation.
But in a swift reaction to the allegation, Commander,
Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Commodore Raimi
Mohammed said it was too early for him to give a true
picture of what transpired, noting that his men may have
followed standard operating procedures and not shot
indiscriminately.
