State threatens to crack down on Ijaw militants

Vice President Atiku Abubakar said on Tuesday that the National Security Council was considering the imposition of a state of emergency in the Niger Delta, following the killing of at least 10 policemen in Odi, a town in the south-eastern state of Bayelsa. “The fact that we have to run a constitutional and democratic government does not diminish the capacity of the government to deal decisively with hoodlums, arsonists and terrorists wherever they are found in the country,” Abubakar said. Seven of the policemen were killed on Thursday after more than 100 fully armed Ijaw youths sprung on them as they sheltered from the rain in a store, newspapers in Port Harcourt, the largest town in the southeast, quoted Bayelsa State police command spokesman Nyanaba Agbozi as saying. ‘The Guardian’ newspaper reported on Wednesday that Ijaw youths armed with machine guns and assault rifles had reinforced their positions in Odi in anticipation of a showdown with police. Abubakar said official patience with the Delta youth was wearing thin because of their repeated wanton killings and destruction of property in the area, ‘The Guardian’ reported. Another three policemen were killed on Monday by 1,000 rampaging youth in Odi, Abubakar added. Agbozi told ‘The Guardian’ the police had not yet decided to confront the Odi youths for fear that a direct assault would draw worldwide condemnation by democratic forces. “If we have to invade Odi now and maybe we have one or two casualties, the whole world would be made to understand we only went in there to finish up the Niger Delta,” he said. “We are trying to look at it philosophically, to see whether the government would do something about it. On our own, we have no other thing than accepting our fate.” A media source in Lagos told IRIN that, up to Wednesday afternoon, there were no reports that the police had moved in on Odi.