By Emma Amaize & Festus Ahon
WARRI—EMBATTLED former militant leader, “General” John Togo, who had come under fire from some of his colleagues for returning to the creeks after accepting amnesty last year from the Federal Government, yesterday, said he was not a criminal as some of his former militant colleagues had alleged.

John Togo, who is the leader of the Niger Delta Liberation Force, NDLF,  spoke exclusively to Vanguard, adding that those who called him criminal were entitled to their opinion.

Meanwhile, the people of Ayakoromo Federated Community in Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State,  yesterday,  vowed to assist in fishing out “General” John Togo and his men in the area and called on the Federal Government to prevail on men of the Military Joint Task Force, JTF,  to relax the siege on their communities.

They decried that their people  were passing through untold hardship as a result of the raid of militant camps by men of JTF.

Togo who spoke to Vanguard, said he will come out of hiding and surrender himself to the JTF, which had laid siege on the waterways of the state in search of him, as he was not on the run.

“It was not my intention to take up arms again. Believe me, it was not planned to be that way. I was pushed into it. I was abandoned. Imagine a ‘general’ like me, they are paying me N65, 000 as my boys, when I know they are given other generals very good money,” he said.

“I complained, nobody listened, it is like they were saying he should go away, he cannot do anything.”

He commended the late President Umaru Yar’Adua for  granting amnesty to the militants.

He said while the present government of President Jonathan had not deemed it necessary to  properly address the promises made by his predecessor, the promise by Yar’Adua to create an additional state for the Ijaw people, has also not been fulfilled.

Meanwhile Ayakoromo Federated Community in Burutu said,  “we are under siege right now in our communities; flying bullets have destroyed many houses in our communities and many people are still missing. We are using this opportunity to disassociate ourselves from the activities of “General” John Togo.

“We are ready to assist the Federal Government and the JTF to fish out all militants in our area.

Economic activities have been crippled and now, we are hungry in our various communities as a result of the military assaults,” the community in a statement said.

“We are appealing to the State and Federal governments to come to our rescue; schools and markets in the communities have been closed.

General John Togo came to our community under the pretence of carrying out commercial farming and now that he has turned the place into militant camps, we are ready to assist the Federal Government and JTF to fish out “General John Togo and his men now in the deep forest of the area. JTF should have mercy on us and comb the forest to arrest “General” John Togo and his cohorts so that we will know peace in our communities,” they added.