Could it be true that two armies are now ruling Rivers State, one loyal to the Federal Republic of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari, and the other serving as outlaws made up of hoodlums almost untouchable?
Is the situation so bad now that thugs openly chase women who sold items in the market or those who withdrew money from automotive teller machines (ATMs), as claimed by a top politician in the state?
A senator gunning for return, Magnus Abe, has openly come out to declare thus; “There are two armies in Rivers State as we speak. There is the Nigerian Army that is under the command of President Muhammed Buhari and then there is an army of gangsters and criminals.”
He said a political giant in the state commanded the gangsters, alleging in a live radio programme in Port Harcourt that there were campaigns to blackmail the regular army to withdraw from Ogoni area so that the other ‘army’ could take over in the March 19, 2016 rerun elections, where Abe is gunning to represent Rivers South East constituency in the eighth Senate.
He said there was nothing the Nigerian Army had done to deserve the kind of blackmail that was going on.
The senator is gunning on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) though he had gone to the senate through the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the division that broke the then ruling party into two in 2013 and led to the break off of the Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi camp into the APC.
He has accused the chieftain of the PDP of maintaining a private army of hoodlums to maintain control of the state especially the zone where Abe comes from.
Speaking further, Abe said that the security situation at Bori (Ogoni area) was bad to the extent that market women could hardly withdraw money from the bank without hoodlums attacking and dispossessing them of their life savings. His words: “If you go to Bori today, a lot of the women who sell in the market don’t even use the banks in Bori. In a minute or two, people are after you with guns to collect your money. The entire area has been rendered unsafe by criminals affiliated to an ex-militant, (names withheld)”.
He regretted that the ex-militant ran a ring of criminal gangsters operating freely in Ogoni, saying this has affected business, law and order.
Abe stated that the activities of the gang leader were being sponsored and supported by the top political leader in the state. He however denied any relationship with the said ex-militant. “This is a man that has been involved in a lot of criminal activities around the Ogoni. His antecedents are not hidden. What is surprising to me is that people will see evil and keep quiet. There was an incident that happened sometime ago in which two gentle men who left a meeting in my house were summarily executed and their wives clearly said that the ex-militant was responsible for the death of their husbands and I have told him I would have nothing to do with him until he resolved that issue with those families. So, from that time till today, I have had nothing absolutely to do with him.”
Reacting last Saturday on his close relationship with the ex-militant, Gov Nyesom Wike said the federal government granted the man amnesty and that that the man surrendered his arms to the government.
Meanwhile, more killings have been reported in two more areas of the state, Opobo and Ohoada, after the Omoku mass killings. The APC claims the victims were their members.
The publicity secretary, Chris Finebone, said Monday, 07 March 2016, that killers from a known ex-militant in Asari Toru had killed and burnt one Ofinjite Amachree, an APC chieftain in the area. “He was attacked by known thugs, beaten to coma before setting him ablaze.”
The party also announced that same today, an APC member named Tubotamuno Wariso was also attacked and beaten to death at Opobo Town by known thugs and cult boys.
Finebone displayed photos of the decapitated and burnt victims, saying the party believed the present killings were part of the scare tactics of the rival party to turn away opponents and win easily.
The PDP chairman, Felix Obuah, who had always accused the APC of claiming membership of anybody who died, has however, announced the killing of his party followers in Omoku area. He gave their names as Isaac Ikechukwu Chinedu, PDP chairman in Obite; and Chinedu Saidey, Ward 9 PDP Assistant Secretary from Oboburu Community. He said the other two were APC’s Franklyn Nkukuru Obi (APC Ward 4 chairman) and his wife and son.
He condemned this set of killings wondering why thugs had defied the appeal by the state governor to stop the senseless killings.
