“Please, help us. We are not criminals. We are ex-militants who came to Yenagoa to submit our arms. You can call JTF Sector 2 and confirm. Please, help us.”
These were the words of a repentant militant, General Taye Idolo as he desperately appealed to journalists at the Bayelsa State Police Command headquarters while being driven away with four others shortly after they were paraded as suspects in whose hands arms and ammunition were recovered.
Idolor was not the only one desperate to tell the story to the outside world; others also struggled. Their sight was pathetic, and so also was their plight as policemen shouted orders at them to keep quiet. The interim State Commissioner of Police Mr. Aderenle Shinaba, had just announced to Bayelsans that his eagled-eyed men had arrested Idolor and others for being in possession of 56 guns and 73 cartridges.
Others arrested with him were Ekpokimi Yanyan, Doigbegha Samuel, Istifanus Pemi, and Kevin Lulu. It was the eve of the House of Assembly elections, and with political gladiators limbering up to outmuscle one another, the entire security system in the state was on red alert. Therefore Shinaba, while addressing the press, disclosed that the suspects at gunpoint forced the driver of a Volkswagen Golf car marked BJ 863 APP. He said the suspects have refused to tell the police the truth but were dishing out cock and bull stories. He wondered why the men had to wait till the night before they came to Yenagoa to submit their arms.
Investigation, however, revealed that the police might have jumped into conclusion as officers of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) have claimed knowing Idolor and others as ex-militants who were coming to Yenagoa to submit arms and ammunition.
Checks indicated that the suspects were arrested on April 13 by policemen attached to the anti-crime outfit, Operation Famou Tangbe and were clamped into detention until they were paraded on April 25. Before they were paraded, A.P Egbegi, in a petition to the Commander, Sector 2, JTF dated April 20 and titled: Intervention in the prolonged detention of ex-militants in the custody of Famutangbe unit- A Humble Appeal explained, that Idolor, Lulu and Doyigbegha Samuel are ex-militants who had approached the JTF base at Camp Porbeni and intimated them of their desire to partake in the Federal Government amnesty programme.
According to him, they had retrieved the guns and ammunition from their Pankumo camp in Gbaraun, Southern Ijaw Local Government area of the state and were in Yenagoa en route the JTF office when the police arrested them and detained them. While maintaining that his clients had done no wrong, Egbegi reiterated their total commitment to the amnesty programme and appealed to the JTF to ensure that the voluntary surrender of his clients did not become a curse.
Four days after the petition, the police paraded the suspects, provoking another petition, this time to the Police Service Commission by Oju Ojujoh, representing the Yanyan family. In the petition dated April 26, a day after they were paraded, Ojujoh accused the police of illegally holding the suspects.
Ojujoh wondered why Shinaba would parade the suspects on April 25 and refuse to inform the public that they had been in police detention since April 13. He explained that the men were militants at a time but had abandoned militancy and their arms and ammunition when soldiers attacked their community. Ojujoh stated that by the time the Federal Government amnesty programme took off, Idolor had left Nigeria for Cameroun and only returned early this year. According to him, Idolor was persuaded to surrender the arms since the JTF was still receiving weapons from ex-militants.
He insisted that they have evidence to buttress their claims and urged the commission to intervene as the suspects were being kept in police detention without being charged to court, noting that such acts violated Nigerian Constitution.
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