Fellow NL's. On the 16th of November 2009, 'repentant' Niger Delta militants in Alo Man O' War camp invaded Choba, host community to University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).  And as usual, Nigerian press brushed the news to paint a milder picture of what actually happened. Here is a first hand information from a victim of the Post Amnesty Militants.

MY ORDEAL IN THE HANDS OF “REPENTANT” NIGER DELTA MILITANTS

I am not writing to show whether the current federal government amnesty programme for the Niger Delta militants is justified or not; whether it is the best option to tackle Niger Delta crisis or not. I am writing to testify for what happened at the University of Port Harcourt, on the 16th November, 2009. I am writing so that the world may know what happened because the current media coverage and reporting of the violent demonstration by the so called “repentant” militants in UNIPORT and it’s environ, is a chase after shadow and not the substance. As one of the victims of the violent militant rampage, I have this feeling that the only way to relief my hurting soul is by writing the account of my own experience during the rampage.

The rampage started around 4:00pm and continued up to 7:00pm. I was in a cyber café very close to students’ eatery place (Ematex), along Alo village – a place directly opposite the fence of UNIPORT Delta Park. University of Port Harcourt Delta Park is where the vice chancellor and most of the university top officers reside. Suddenly, I saw some youths, armed with brand new matchets and broken bottles, chanting and moving towards UNIPORT main gate area. It was not long they started looting and breaking people’s shops. Shop and business owners around UNIPORT had locked up and fled for their lives. These hoodlums continued to break shops and loot without any body challenging them. All of us in the cyber café, about nine of us where trapped amidst the pandemonium that ensued as a result of the riot. We could not escape to anywhere because the militants were everywhere around us. We only managed to lock ourselves inside the cyber café.

Initially, I felt with time the army or police will confront them or resist their advancement and or possibly chase them back to their camp. It was not until after we have spent one hour in the cyber café without any sign of military or police intervention that I knew I was in for a serious danger. Soon the militants got closer, breaking the boutique shop near our hideout. Every thing in the shop was carted away. Next they started breaking the locked up burglary proof of the place we were hiding. They continued hitting the iron bars continuously in order to gain entry into the cyber café. When it became so obvious to us that they will definitely succeed, we broke the ceiling and hide our laptops there. I managed to remove my cell phone sim card, keeping the phone for them. At a time the cyber café owner courageously came out and unlocked the doors for them in a way to ameliorate their anger should they succeed in the almost successful attempt they have been making to break in. These nexus of criminals that were assembled together following the amnesty deal started robbing us of everything we had. They took my GSM phone, N11,000.00 cash and my safety booth worth over N25,000.00. Everybody submitted his or her GSM phones at the order of the hoodlums that trudged into the place in their numbers. Some of them had blood stains all over. They vandalized and carried away desk top computers, stabilizers and every other thing their eyes can see in the cyber café. While we remained there since there was no possible way of escape, another group came and began to abuse us physically. One particularly was interested in slapping us one after the other. The three female students in our midst received the same measure of hot slap before being whisked away to an unknown destination. Each of us received at least seven hot slaps at the face.     

By this time it was around 6:00pm, we remained at the mercy of the criminals. Still another group entered and one of them saw a gallon filled with diesel and started looking for lighter. Now and then and everywhere he was searching and asking for lighter. Thank God he did not see lighter at the end. I wonder what he would have done with the lighter because these so called “repentant” militants are not normal human beings. In what seems like a Divine escape, I made my way behind the cyber café seeing that something was distracting the criminals. There I was hearing the cries of female students from some of the incomplete buildings around the area. The boys maimed, looted people’s belongings and physically abused innocent people, mostly students of UNIPORT, without anybody challenging them. Joint Military Taskforce (JTF) stood by and watched while poor innocent and helpless female students are being abused. JTF in the guise of “order not given yet” as somebody insinuated, stood by watching these hoodlums do whatever they feel like doing. These bad boys at a time ran out of ideas, they were just thinking of what next to do. Those of us trapped in their mist remained with them to observe everything.

This was the day I realized how hopeless security of lives and properties can be in Nigeria.  Is this how Nigeria is? So no Vice Chancellor, no University senate member can realize the agony of students and do something for more than three hours I saw things happen? Was it enough to secure the university’s main entrance gates? What about vulnerable students living off campus (Alo area) and unfortunate and helpless people that are caught up in the mayhem? Why was there no desperate call by the university authority for governor’s intervention if “order” was the case? Which JTF commander gave the order that soldiers should watch while people are maimed, abused and personal belongings being looted? Could the allegation that soldiers were in solidarity with the militants because if the militants are paid their stipends, they themselves (JTF) can receive theirs, be true?  Who initiated the idea of assembling robbers and common criminals in a place very close to a university? Why was there no professor of sociology (at least) that envisaged the negative impact the choice of locating the militants in a place close to a university could be? This choice of location of the rehabilitation camp, was it to convert the militants to students or to convert students to militants? Who released the militants from their camp? From the way, the so called “repentant” militants operated during the rampage, I saw a kind of organization in them. They had somebody leading them. Only one person was in charge of keeping the GSM phones they were collecting from students. This is to say that the so called rehabilitation may be proving counter productive. How are we sure these militants will not exchange phone numbers and reassemble in the creek as another bigger and stronger militant group? Is it not possible these boys are forming stronger confraternity? Two or three of these criminals together means danger, how much more when they are in their hundreds.

I believe the government owes victims of “repentant” militants’ violent rampage explanations. I believe the university of Port Harcourt management owes affected students some explanations. I believe JTF commander in charge of the militants located in Man “O” War Camp in Alo owes victims some explanations. Why the choice of a university community environ in locating the rehab camp? Why not military barracks or any other no man’s land? Does it mean that no university of Port Harcourt senate member envisaged the possible damage the location of the militant rehab camp near the institution could result? Already any university community is like a simmering volcano and any small disturbance can trigger eruption. Nobody even envisaged possible bloody clash of students and the “repentant militants”. I had one student saying had it been they (cultists) have not been disarmed, these militants would not have gone free. The so called “repentant” militants, why did they not proceed to government house if they had issues with government, why looting and maiming?

Before closing this testimony, I hereby recommend that government, the university of Port Harcourt management and JTF should accept responsibility for the loss, abuse and emotional trauma suffered by students and other victims of the rampage. They should do so by going to the air to apologize to the victims aforementioned. Adequate compensation should be paid to especially the poor shop and business owners around the university that may be left with nothing to start life again and also the affected students. If the current leadership of Nigeria is sincere and is willing to demonstrate that the system of governance is working, somebody or some persons should be held responsible for the unfortunate incident. A commission of enquiry should be set up to ascertain, first, the extent of damage caused by the “repentant” militants; secondly, how victims can be compensated and lastly, to ascertain who and who are responsible for the lapses that led to the ugly incident.


From Uche

A Planning Engineer based in Port Harcourt

Man, so they put them in the Man O War Camp?

I hope they aint causing harm to my boys over there like Tonye West Africa.

Man O' War camp was where I used to spend many summers back in da day.