At least, five suspects are alleged to have been arrested by the Joint Military Task Force (JTF)  in the early hours of Wednesday in connection with the dastardly killing of 12 policemen and have since been handed over to the Bayelsa State Police Command for interrogations.

Although the police in the state are yet to confirm the number of arrests and to establish whether the suspects are directly involved in the conspiracy and killing of the policemen, they were said to have been apprehended where they were relaxing in their homes.

‘’After interrogations, we shall be able to determine whether they are part of the criminal gang that killed the policemen,” said a security man who took part in the arrest.

Speaking yesterday at a news conference in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Kingsley Omire, said that the command was making progress in the investigation of the killing of 12 of its men in Azuzuama waterways in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state last Saturday.

Omire explained that everything was being done to bring the killers of the policemen to book, adding, “we are doing a lot on the case and our actions will show that we are working and at the appropriate time, we will inform the public on the progress.

“It will be premature and prejudicial to comment on the number of arrests so far made; at the moment, it is not in our strategic interest to make further comments.”

But a top security agent in the state, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed to The Tide in Yenagoa, that one of the suspects hails from Azuzuama community, while others are from other parts of Bayelsa and Delta States.

The source added that security agencies had intensified their search to track down more suspects linked with the killing of the policemen.

Omire, however, said that the search by security agents for the killers of the 12 policemen last Saturday has yielded positive results, adding that the search team last Tuesday recovered 10 bodies of the slain officers.

He confirmed that the decomposing bodies of 10 out of the 12 slain police men have been deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

Meanwhile, The Tide learnt yesterday that one of the remaining policemen still missing has been released by the militants, and is now reunited with his family in Bayelsa State.

The 31-year old Lucky Edobie, who hails from Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state, is said to have served the police for seven years.

He was said to be among the 15 police escorts detailed to provide security protection to the team of officials on the burial tour to Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, when the militants attacked their boat last Saturday.

Sources told The Tide in Yenagoa yesterday, that Lucky Edobie was released last Wednesday by the militants, who had taken him captive to their camp in the creeks for interrogation, after the attack, even as he was reeling in a pool of blood, following bullet wounds he sustained from the exchange of gunfire between the police and the attackers.

Reliable security sources said that Lucky was released to the police high command in the state, along with two other expatriates initially held hostage, after a ransom of N1million had been paid.

It was gathered that Lucky was admitted at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, where he was treated of injuries sustained from bullet wounds, and discharged, yesterday.

Our source said that Lucky met three expatriates at the camp of the militants in the creeks, saying that one of the expatriates, apparently from Greece, was still being held by the militants.

Brother of the released police officer, Victor Edobie, who confirmed Lucky’s re-union with his family in an interview, thanked God for saving the life of his brother.

When contacted, Bayelsa State Police Public Relations Officer, Alex Akhigbe, declined to comment on the release and any further details therefrom, but added that he would get back to our correspondent.

Akhigbe, however, did not get back to us as at press time.