NAN
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.
Mr Godwin Nwachukwu, the state NSCDC Commandant, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday 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.
The NSCDC boss said that the command later arrested and questioned a woman who was with a suspect.
“My men went to arrest a fleeing suspect, so they arrested the woman who was with him. We interrogated her and later released her after finding out that she was not culpable.
“The allegation that we shot someone is being investigated and we have offered to take the supposedly shot person to any hospital of his choice and the community refused, and said they were consulting.
“We have been waiting for them because a medical examination is required to authenticate the claim,” he said.
NAN recalls that the incident occurred in the early hours of Feb. 20.
Chief Richard Seiba, the traditional ruler of Ikarama, in his reaction to the alleged shooting of one Mr Perekurofa Odoyibo, alleged that NSCDC officials shot the victim who is currently receiving medical attention.
“What the Civil Defence people did was regrettable. They shot the boy twice in the arm and leg. I have just visited him and he is in pains,” the monarch had claimed.
Mr Ben Warder, a youth leader in the area, also told NAN that personnel of the Bayelsa Command of NSCDC had visited the victim at home where he was being treated with local herbs.
“We are at a loss why the same people who denied shooting of our youths came and wanted to take away the victim; they came with so much force and did not tell us that they were taking him to hospital.
“That was why we refused,” the youth leader said.