The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Bayelsa State has petitioned the Nigerian Army Defence Headquarters over alleged misconduct and extortion by some soldiers in the state.
The right group alleged that three soldiers of the military task force on escort duty in the creeks forcefully demanded and extorted the sum of N.2m from some indigenes of Atonyekiri community, near Nembe in Bayelsa.
State chairman of CLO, Chief Nengi James, who disclosed this in Yenagoa, said that a formal complaint has also been filed with the Unit Commander of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Brass Island.
He alleged that the three soldiers accused of the crime subjected the people of the troubled community to threats of extinction and arson.
James, who is also the Chairman of the Oil and Gas Committee of Nembe Kingdom, said that the accused soldiers carried out the crime last Tuesday at about 3pm while on an escort duty for Agip.
According to him, the soldiers were escorting Agip workers who were undertaking repairs at a crude oil leakage site close to Atonyekiri community in Brass Local Government Area.
"While the Agip staff and some Nembe Oil and Gas Committee members were at the site of the oil spillage to effect the repairs, they left behind the soldiers on the gun boat provided for the escort duty.
"The three soldiers, whose names have been given to the JTF Commander of the Brass Unit disembarked and invaded the Diesel Pump station within the community with the accusation of illegal bunkering.
"They demanded for the sum of half a million Naira but when the people refused, they brought out a jerry can of fuel and sprayed it on the houses in the fishing settlement and threatened to burn down their homes," James said.
He alleged that the diesel dealer and the Indigenes of the community raised the sum of N200,000 and handed it to the soldiers.
James explained that following the action of the soldiers, the Agip officials present quickly filed a complaint with the JTF Unit commander in Brass.
"We also filed our complaint, and have decided to take it further by writing the Chief of Army Staff," James said.
He called on the military authorities to order an investigation into the incident and ensure that the soldiers involved are made to face justice.
According to him, "If proper investigation is not done, it will further discourage communities to work with the security agents on the needed campaign against oil bunkering.
"This is a crime against humanity and the people of the Niger Delta. If not investigated, it will mean that the top brass of the Nigerian Military are involved in the rising cases of extortion and threats."
Contacted on the development, the spokesman of the JTF, Lt.-Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the JTF headquarters had not received an official complaint from the groups and briefing from its Unit Commander in Brass.
"But let me assure you that if such reports are received, it will investigated and those involved would be judiciously dealt with if there are found wanting," Nwachukwu said
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