Troop deployment to Bayelsa

Government troops sent to Bayelsa State at the weekend are there to halt the growing lawlessness, protect residents of the area and not to make war, presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe said on Tuesday on state television. “The security forces,” he said, “were deployed to the area under the control of the state governor, who is the chief security officer of the state, primarily to ensure the enforcement of law and order, the speedy return of normalcy and peace.” Governor Diepreye Alameyeseigha said on television on Monday that the presence of soldiers in Odi, Koluma, Okokuma local government areas of the state was to arrest bandits in the area. Twelve policemen were kidnapped and killed by militant youths from the Ijaw ethnic group two weeks ago. Human rights groups have criticised the use of troops, calling for regular law enforcement measures to be used to arrest the killers of the policemen. “This is the worst possible response to the unrest in the Delta,” Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of US-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Monday. “The rule of law clearly needs to be restored, but government lawlessness of this kind can only make the situation worse.” However, presidential spokesman Okupe said that police reinforcements sent to the area had been assaulted “and forcibly turned back at illegal road blocks mounted by armed hoodlums”. The Ijaw National Congress USA (INCUSA) said it supported a call by “several organisations and individuals” in Nigeria for a sovereign national conference to discuss the restructuring of the Nigerian federation in solving the problems in the Delta and elsewhere.