Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, June 22, 2004.
Notorious sea pirates’ leader, 3
others arrested
By Uwakwe Abugu
Bureau
Chief, Warri
A
notorious leader of a gang of about 24 sea pirates who have been terrorising
riverine and urban dwellers in Delta State in the past two years has been
apprehended along with three members of the gang.
John
Togo, who hails from Ayakoromo in Burutu Council Area of the state, on Monday
confessed that his gang members have been responsible for several bank
robberies and cases of kidnapping in Warri and environ.
Togo
and his men who had fled Delta in the wake of the killing of about 27 pirates,
including his men, were arrested in Port Harcourt on Sunday by officers of the
military joint taskforce set up by the Federal Government.
Task
force Commander Brig. Gen. Elias Zamani, in a statement on Monday, said Togo
and his gang had been followed since the special security operation ordered by
Governor James Ibori started.
Said
Zamani: “After days of continuous trail and monitoring of the gang by
plain clothes men of the joint task force, John Togo and three members of his
were eventually arrested on June 20, 2004 in Port Harcourt, Rivers
state”.
They
were dislodged from their various hideout following these operations and since
they were declared wanted by the taskforce and Delta State they have been on
the run.
Zamani
alleged that Togo and his gang members “were the masterminds of the
series of heinous criminal acts in Warri creeks and environ, ranging from armed
robbery, unprovoked attacks on troops, sea piracy and kidnapping just to
mention a few.
“Specifically,
on 24 October, 2003 after their dislodgement from Ayakoromo, the group fled to
Ogbe-Ijoh where they terrorised innocent citizens, planed and went into the
creeks to kidnap seven expatriates that were later released at a ransom.
“The
gang is linked with the bank robbery incidents at Sapele, Globe Star Company as
well as the shooting of troops of the task force at Shell and Warri main
market, Awor”.
Togo
confessed to newsmen that his gang was responsible for the robbery of Globe
Star, located on Mcdemott Road, Warri, in which the company lost about N50
million.
He
owned up to kidnapping expatriate oil workers and collecting the N7 million
ransom paid to release them.
He
denied carrying out the Sapele bank robbery but accepted responsibility for
several others, including that in an Abraka bank.
Togo
confessed that most of his boys have been killed in the on-going security sweep
and that over 18 guns have been lost by the gang.
