Casualty figures remained unknown, but sources in the community said two persons were missing.
As gathered from SR, it was learnt that the ex-militant leader got the Bayelsa Police Commissioner to release three police gunboats as well as police escorts for the operation. The police command recently lost 11 policemen who were part of 50 policemen deployed to provide cover to an ex-militant.
A source in the community told SR by telephone on Saturday morning that the police gunboat approached the coastal community about midnight and commenced shooting to scare residents. The source stated that the youths of the community quickly mobilized and resisted the three gunboats which fired at the community from the creeks for more than 30 minutes.
The source said that the unarmed youths hauled stones at the boats until the gunfire attracted a naval patrol team assigned to protect a Shell flow station in the community. The intervention of the naval team reportedly led to the arrest of the attacking gunboats and their occupants who were handed over to security agents in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa capital.
A source accused the ex-militant of seeking to foist his men as the leaders of Peremabiri community and to undermine the community's current leadership with whom he had been having a running battle.
The police in Yenagoa refused to comment on the police commissioner's alleged deployment of policemen and three gunboats for "illegal operation."
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