Five suspected militants have been reportedly killed by Nigeria's naval unit of the military force at Cawthorn Channel in Degema Local Council of Nigeria's south-eastern Rivers State as the State Government became tougher on militancy in the region.
Spokesman of the military Joint Task Force (JTF), Sagir Musa, told newsman on Friday that the naval personnel who were on routine patrol clashed with the suspected militants on Thursday night as the latter cruised in three speedboats on the Cawthone Channel, Lagos-based Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
According to the spokesman, two Ak-47 assault rifles and a speedboat were recovered from the militants, while no soldier was injured or killed in the crossfire.
Musa reiterated that the JTF, a military force in Nigeria's oil- rich Niger Delta region, was resolute to eradicate militancy and other criminal activities in the Niger Delta.
Meanwhile, JTF Commander, Sarkin Yarkin Bello, has ordered the deployment of more troops to Abonnema and Degema after an intelligence report indicated that the areas have become havens for militants.
"The decision to deploy troops in the above-mentioned areas is purely based on undeniably credible reports that these communities have high concentration of militants and related criminals. Above all, some militant camps are located in the areas," Musa was quoted as saying by the newspaper on the deployment.

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State said in another occasion on Friday that militants in Niger Delta were merely armed robbers and criminals.
The Governor said leaders of militant groups in the state were not fighting for the emancipation of the people of Niger Delta as they claimed, but were only hiding under its guise to engage in criminality.
This could be the toughest public statement by the Rivers State Government ever since, said security sources that preferred to be unnamed.
Militant attacks have been seemingly melting down since its peak in mid-September, when tens of people from both military and militant sides were killed while five oil pipelines and several oil flow stations were blown up.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the most prominent militant group in Niger Delta, sent its latest statement on October 14, saying that it would distance itself from the proposed meeting being arranged on its behalf between the group and the Niger Delta Technical Committee at Oporoza in Delta state of Nigeria on October 15.
International oil prices which dropped from over 147 dollars per barrel in early August to currently about 70 dollars per barrel have cast a shadow on Nigeria's future economic prospects due to the country's over-dependence on oil revenues.
It was learnt that more than 95 per cent of Nigeria's total exports and 80 per cent of Nigerian Federal Government's annual revenues are from the oil sector.
However, no evidence shows that recent hibernation of militancy in Niger Delta has some relations with oil price fall.