Killing of security operatives: Don’t trigger repeat of Odi massacre, Dickson warns militants

Bayelsa State governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, yesterday, condemned the killing of seven Naval and Joint Task Force code named Operation Pulo Shield personnel, along the creek of Nembe and Foropa community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas of the state respectively and other parts of the Niger Delta region.
 

He said that the unwarranted attacks and killings of the nation’s security personnel were putting the state and the region in bad light and setting a stage for a repeat of the ugly incident that led to the 1999 Odi massacre in Kolokuma/Opokuma area of the state. 

Dickson, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said that a meeting of community leaders, elders and other stakeholders would be summoned at a date to be announced later as part of efforts to check the trend with a view to improving the security situation in the state. 

 

Describing the killings as unfortunate, the governor called on the perpetrators and their collaborators to stop with immediate effect. 

“Terrorism does not favour peace, neither can democracy express itself through violence,” he said. 

Dickson stated that the killings were also putting the innocent citizens in the state and the Niger Delta region in danger.