JTF Exhumes John Togo's Corpse

Vanguard

26 May 2011

JTF Exhumes John Togo's Corpse

Warri — MEN of the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger Delta, yesterday, found the grave in which militant leader and commander of disbanded Niger Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, 'Gen' John Togo, was buried by his surviving fighters, May 14, on the fringe of a riverine community in Delta State and dug up the decomposing corpse.

Also, the ammunitions storekeeper of the group, who was also injured during an aerial bombardment by the task force on May 12, which shattered the legs of Togo, died on Tuesday at Ogiriagbane, an Ijaw community, where he was secretly receiving treatment.

Togo's decomposing body was allegedly interred in a camouflage military uniform and taken away in an ambulance after it was exhumed between 2.00 p.m., to 2.20 p.m., to an unknown destination by soldiers.

Commander of the JTF, Major-General Johnson Ochoga told Vanguard, when he was contacted at about 2.30 p.m., yesterday, on the exhuming of Togo's corpse by his men, that he was just hearing it from this reporter.

Vanguard promised to call him back later and at about 3.50 p.m., when Vanguard got back to him, the JTF boss said he was at the Enugu Airport and was not in the position to comment on the matter.

A source told Vanguard, "an Ijaw boy, who followed the soldiers to the place confirmed that the corpse was exhumed and that he saw the scar on his face and that it is still there."

The source said, "the boy told me categorically that he identified and was sure that the corpse was that of John Togo."

According to him, "they carried the remains in a military ambulance and all the soldiers who went to exhume the corpse wore something to cover their noses."

Emma Amaize