The Nigerian military, Monday discharged the rumours that innocent persons may have been hit by the air campaign being carried out against pipeline vandals at the Ishawo, Igando and Igbolomu areas of Ikorodu in Lagos, and the Arepo, Awawa, Elepete and Ibafo areas of Ogun State.
“There is no way innocent persons would be hit because what we are doing is precision attack on registered targets or identified locations. No innocent Nigerian was hit. The attack is on the criminals who hide in the creeks. We are still carrying out the raid,” Defence spokesman, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar told The Guardian via telephone.
Abubakar, who noted that the military is yet to ascertain casualty figures, urged people to desist from tagging the criminals as members of any particular ethnic group.
“We are not carrying out military attack on the Ijaw. We are carrying out the operation against criminals. We don’t tag them. Militants are militants. We don’t want to know if they are Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. Our war is against pipeline vandals and oil thieves,” he said.
The campaign is tagged, Operation Awatse, by the military Joint Task Force. It had at midnight Thursday launched an aerial bombardment of the vandal’s enclaves and hideouts.
The Force comprises elements of the Nigerian Navy (NN), the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and the Nigerian Army (NA), alongside the Department of State Security Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).
The military deployed fighter jets, attack helicopters and Alpha jets in what was also a show of force.
