Togo: How JTF averted blood bath in Ayakoromor

BY Emma Amaize
WARRI — UNKNOWN to the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger Delta, the aerial bombardment of May 12, on one of the camps of militant leader, the late ‘General’ John Togo, which led to his death, two days later, saved indigenes of Ayakoromor, particularly those who were regarded as military informants by the Niger Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, the militant group, led by the deceased militant leader, from being killed.

One of the leaders of the community told Vanguard, yesterday, “John Togo and his boys had in their possession a register containing names of people from the community, who they suspected gave security agents information on his different camps in the creeks and how he could be located since November, last year, when he had an encounter with the task force and killed some soldiers.

“He (Togo) believed it was people from the community that identified the location of his ‘Israel Barracks,’ which they said was off the Atlantic Ocean to the JTF and for that reason, the people whose names were on the list were marked for elimination whenever the coast was clear for him,” the source said.

“We never knew John Togo will die the way he did. He believed that the ugly chapter will come to an end and he will be a free man once again and return to the community to tackle those who gave the military information about his camps and whereabouts, but God disappointed them,” the source added.

The source, who said his name was on the list, added  “many of us were afraid of what Togo will do to us if he was ever pardoned after turning down the amnesty that was granted him and others in 2009, but we are happy he is dead now.”

Vanguard gathered  that on May 12, when Togo was struck by missiles from the JTF, his girlfriend was one of the first persons  he asked his boys to contact.

“It was through Togo’s girlfriend that some of the elders got to know that Togo was shot by the JTF and when he died, his girlfriend also confirmed it,” the source added.