Bayelsa Shooting: Ploy To Divert Attention -NSCDC

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Bayelsa Command, says allegations that its officials shot and injured a vigilante team member is an attempt to divert attention from the massive oil theft in the state.
The state NSCDC Commandant, Mr Godwin Nwachukwu, said this in an interview with newsmen yesterday in Yenagoa.
Nwachukwu vowed that the “spurious allegations’’ would not deter the command from its mandate of protecting oil pipelines at oilfields in the state.
According to him, the officials deployed to protect oil facilities at Ikarama community shot in self-defence when attacked by the community youths.
He explained that the command acted in response to reports of persistent sabotage on oil facilities by deploying men to arrest suspects behind the vandalism.
The commandant said that members of the community had ambushed men of the NSCDC who were on their legitimate duties at the oilfields.
“My men acted in self-defence, and it is our mandate to protect oil facilities. They were attacked and the bridge that serves as exit was demobilised to trap them.
“In an effort to escape, my men fired some shots in the air to scare them away, no one was shot,” he explained.