What is Port-Harcourt turning into?

http://odili.net/news/source/2007/aug/12/699.html

Residents Flee
• Azazi, Okiro Meet Omehia
• Expatriate Dies In Militants’ Camp

Unrelenting bandits in Rivers State continued their onslaught on Saturday, bombing two vital public institutions in Port Harcourt and killing no fewer than 15 persons, four of them riot policemen on the sixth day of their attacks on the state.

The trigger-happy youths detonated dynamite on the 16-pump Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega Station and the nearby Radio Rivers on Degema Street, less than a kilometre to the Government House before dawn.

The gunmen killed a security guard at a house adjacent the radio station but could not gain access to the transmitters of the station, which appeared to have been their main target.

As the news of the attack spread on Saturday morning, the insurgents moved towards the main industrial area of the state, Trans-Amadi, where they slew three riot policemen at their duty post as well as another one and a civilian at Garrison.

Sporadic gunshots rented the air as residents woke up to take part in this month’s sanitation exercise between 7am and 10am, forcing residents to flee in different directions.

At daybreak, no fewer than 15 bullet-riddled corpses had been recovered and deposited at the state-owned Braithwaite Memorial Hospital near the Government House in Port Harcourt. Four of them were riot policemen while the rest were innocent persons felled by stray bullets.

The death toll had on Friday been put at 30 by independent sources, although the police confirmed only six died.

The action of the militants forced the Nigerian Army to move in soldiers to check the festering security situation in the capital.

The soldiers deployed from the 2nd Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt immediately mounted roadblocks from the entrance of the Government House to the Old Port Harcourt Township and frisked motorists and pedestrians.

The police came out with more Armoured Personnel Carriers and deployed their men in all the roads to curtail the excesses of the militias.

As the stop-and-search operations began, soldiers intercepted a Carina Toyota car loaded with arms and ammunition just as it was heading towards the Government House. The occupants reportedly opened fire and wounded a soldier on the leg while the soldiers in turn killed two of them and destroyed the car.

The relic of the car was left at the Government House Road Junction and was later towed away by policemen from the Governor’s Office.

Some posters of a former member of the state House of Assembly were reportedly found in the car used by the militants and taken away by security agents.

It was not clear at press time if the former lawmaker had been questioned but we gathered that the police authorities are under intense pressure from the Presidency to contain the rampaging gangs in the state.

While the Police High Command at Abuja is taking the heat from the Presidency, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone Four and the state Commissioner of Police have in turn been directed to arrest the situation without delay.

Sunday Independent can confirm that memos were dispatched to the AIG and CP from the office of the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro, on Wednesday on the ugly development.

Sources said Okiro, who is an indigene of the state, is worried over the development and not leaving anything to chance to tackle the wave of banditry in the state.

He was said to have held several meetings with both his senior aides and officials of sister security agencies on the need to pool human resources together to confront the challenge.

As the police strategise on how to curb the situation, the authorities have received thousands of requests from prominent indigenes and residents seeking for police protection in their homes and offices.

But only a few of such letters (applications), we gathered, have been given attention just as prominent indigenes of the state have expressed serious concern over the continued inaction of the Federal Government in the face of the rampaging invasion of the state by gunmen.

They wondered why the situation had been allowed to degenerate to the current level despite the military and security formations in the state, and Port Harcourt in particular.

Port Harcourt hosts the One and Second Amphibious Battalion (Bori Camp), a Naval base, Police Command headquarters, including MOPOL 19, and the regional headquarters of the State Security Service.

There is also the 212 Artillery Battalion at Elele.

It was gathered that the state government spends at least N35 million monthly on military and security agencies in the state as motivation to ensure security as well as on other logistics. Recently, the government acquired three sophisticated assault boats for Naval patrols, one of which was blown up by militants.

"With all these support, we still find ourselves in this kind of mess, and the Federal Government is treating it as a local affair. Let me tell you, this matter is more serious than we think. It is even under-reported in the media. We have a very big problem on our hands and if we do not act now, this country will live to regret it," a prominent indigene said.

Worried by the worsening situation, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Andrew Azazi, and Okiro flew into Port Harcourt and held a closed-door meeting with the governor, Sir Celestine Omehia, on the development.

The two security chiefs met with Omehia for about 45 minutes and later moved over to the headquarters of the 2nd Brigade of the Nigerian Army, where they held another round of meeting with army, air force and naval officers for about two hours.

Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, Okiro said the security agencies were set to battle the criminals in Port Harcourt and bring an end to the killings in the state.

Okiro warned that the killings were unacceptable to the Federal Government and that the government was all out to put an end to the lawlessness in the city.

"We want to confront these hoodlums head on. On the lawlessness we see in Port Harcourt, we are here to make sure that it is stopped. The hoodlums have been confronted by the JTF (Joint (Military) Task Force) today," he said.

The police boss, who attributed the violence which started in Port Harcourt since last Monday to rival gang clash, disclosed that the JTF had drawn up strategies to deal with the growing insecurity in the state.

The IGP said that the situation on the ground did not warrant the declaration of a state of emergency, as the security agencies were in full control of the situation.

The state government, also, immediately reacted to calls for the declaration of a state of emergency, and the fleeing of residents in the city, saying the situation did not warrant it.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Paulinus Nsirim, who spoke on a special radio programme in Port Harcourt on Saturday, said those calling for a state of emergency were disgruntled elements bent on discrediting the state government.

Nsirim insisted that the governor was operating an all-inclusive government and had taken steps to improve the security situation in the state by setting up the Peace and Rehabilitation Committee to assist repentant cult members.

He also assured that the state was safe and urged the people to go about their normal and lawful businesses, as security is being beefed up to guarantee their safety.

The Commissioner for Works, Mr Emmanuel Omah, who also spoke during the programme, said the current disturbances were not isolated scenario, but have been part of the Niger Delta crisis, which, according to him, would take time to resolve.

"If you want to achieve peace, you have to embark on reorientation, and this process takes time before yielding result," he said.

In neighbouring Bayelsa, the corpse of an expatriate, who reportedly died in the camp of a militant group headed by one Africa in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, has been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa,

Workers at the hospital said the name of the dead expatriate is John but refused to give further details ostensibly for fear of being attacked by the militants.

[color=#006600][/color]This current crises is only localized to Port Harcourt metropolis comprising about 4 LGA and not the entire state. The armed forces are currently playing "the ostrirch" by protecting "govt house and the oil multinational offices". They should go to the criminal strongholds in the diobu area, abonemma wharf, abuloma axis and then to very core areas of ogbakiri and then buguma if they are really serious.

It's high time they differentiate between militancy and brazen acts of brigandage being committed by these lawless groups, if they allow this to fester for too long, I'm afraid Port-Harcourt will turn to a no-go area, destroying the lives and economy of the people

Didn't notice such incident in ph,emmmmm!,where was I then?

nO WHERE is safe in Nigeria strange things are happening in almost all the regions of the country, may Almighty deliver innocent from suffering on what they know nothing about.

jamil!:
nO WHERE is safe in Nigeria strange things are happening in almost all the regions of the country, may Almighty deliver innocent from suffering on what they know nothing about.

Do you realize this happened 6 yrs ago?

People just dont scrutinise post before rushing to make comments as if it happened last saturday.

The date people is 12/7/2007[size=8pt][/size]

Can someone pls summarize that long shiit.