The former Sector III Commander of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Rivers State, Col Mutia Adeyemi Yekini, has told a Port Harcourt High Court presided over by Justice Boma Diepiri that the 57 militant suspects standing trial before the court were responsible for various criminal activities on the Bonny waterways.

Col Yekini made the revelations while testifying before the court last Friday in Port Harcourt.

Col Yekini disclosed that prior to the arrest of the accused persons in November 2010, intelligence report reaching the security outfit revealed that the group led by one Otonyeme Kuna, alias Obese” was responsible for criminal activities off the Bonny coast.

The JTF sector commander stated that an order was given by the headquarters to dislodge  the gang, adding that during one of the  reconnaissance exercise conducted by JTF, the hideout of the accused was located at Borokiri.

The Borokiri camp, according to him, was located 21 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny and 1.5 kilometres from Ke community.

Col Yekini stated that after 14 reconnaissance operations by the security outfit, the gang was dislodged on November 18, 2010 as about 63 members of the gang were arrested.

Though he did not give figures of casualties, the army officer disclosed that during the operations, members of the taskforce carried out under ground fire from the camp, resulting in an exchange of gunfire for three days.

Col Yekini further stated that after the camp was overran in the early morning hours of 18 November, 19 hostages being held by the accused persons were released including eight foreigners and 11 Nigerians.

Besides, he told the court that huge cache of arms and live ammunition including other military kits and equipment were equally recovered from the Borokiri militant camp.

But during a cross examination by the accused counsel, Barrister Ogbuawa argued that the witness did not arrest any of his clients with arms neither were the ammunition recovered from Borokiri camp.

Barrister Oguawa submitted that there were no marks to show that the accused were the owners of the arms.

Another defence counsel, Barrister Fortune Amachree argued that against the claims made by Col Yekini, casualties would have arisen from the JTF operation, adding that if there were no casualty, then all the witness claims were false.

Barr Ken Asuete represented by Barrister T.G.Wokoma in the defence  was of the view that the said camp was a fishing settlement in Kalabari land and had no links with militant activities.

State counsel,, Barrister Otoyetari Okoye pleaded the court to admit the photographs taken by the JTF commander during the operation, after admitting the photograph based on their relevance to the matter, Justice Boma Diepiri adjourned further cross examination to 8th of July.