Gunmen kill five in Rivers, slay three soldiers in Bayelsa

In what seems to becoming a daily affair in the Niger Delta, unidentified gunmen yesterday invaded the premises of the Rivers State High Court complex along Moscow and Station roads, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, killing two security personnel and inflicted severe machete cuts on two others.

Similarly, gunmen invaded a bar along the Polytechnic Road in Bori, the headquarters of Khana Local Government Council of Rivers State and shot dead three persons late on Monday night.

The Guardian gathered that three gunmen stormed the bar where several persons were drinking and singling out the victims, shot them dead at close range. Amid the pandemonium, the gunmen boarded their motorcycle and escaped. The motive for the attack remains unknown.

And in Bayelsa State, three soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force, code-name Operation Pulo Shield were feared killed in an ambush by gunmen, suspected to be militants.

Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Musa Kimo, who visited the court premises with a team of policemen, has promised full investigation to unravel those behind the killing.

Also speaking on the incident, Police Public Relations Officers (PPRO), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ahmad Muhammad, said policemen are deployed to protect judges and not court premises.

It was gathered that the Bayelsa gunmen, who operated on a speedboat, overran the military outpost at Foropa, Southern Ijaw Local Government Council of the state, exchanging fire with the soldiers, and killing the three.

After their murder, the suspected militants carted away two AK47 rifles, a general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) and other ammunition at the Foropa checkpoint.

It was gathered that the incident happened Monday night in Foropa, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

The killing of the three soldiers is coming days after hostilities began between the military and the militants last week Monday with four gunmen reportedly killed while one soldier attached to Operation Pulo Shield sustained injuries in a bloody shootout at Peregbene along the Ogbia-Nembe waterways in Bayelsa State.

The gunmen were said to have attacked the gunboat conveying soldiers to an undisclosed location for an assignment in a gun duel, which lasted about an hour.