Rivers State Government on Tuesday concluded the first phase of the State Amnesty Programe, with Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike disbanding all vigilante committees in all communities of the state.

The governor also directed security agencies to henceforth go after all cultists and kidnappers who refused to voluntarily accept the amnesty offer of the state government, pointing out that his administration has zero tolerance to crime and criminality.

The governor spoke at the Government House, Port Harcourt during the submission of the report of the Rivers State Amnesty Programme. The State Amnesty Committee had its membership drawn from the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy , the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Services.

The governor described the State Amnesty Programme as ‘very sucessful’, noting that the fact that 22, 430 cultists accepted amnesty and surrendered 911 assorted arms with 7661 assorted ammunitions and 147 explosives has made the state relatively peaceful.


He said: “But to show that Government is serious, I hereby disband all vigilante committees in the various communities. I direct the security agencies to make sure that we don’t have such committees except they profile their members to prove that they don’t belong to any cult groups.

“Initially , people felt it was a political game . I thank God almighty that we have proved our critics wrong that we are serious to ensure the security of lives and property in the state. We cannot say that we can totally eliminate crime, but that you and I can sleep very well today, unlike in the past when cultists and kidnappers had a field day.”

Speaking further, the governor said: “For those we have given the opportunity, but they refused to embrace amnesty, I direct the security agencies to go after them. The time for amnesty is over and we are going to take the war to them.

“Since we have given you the opportunity and you have refused to surrender, you have become enemies of the state and the state will fight to the last to make sure that criminality is reduced to the barest minimum, so that investors will continue to have confidence to invest their funds in this state.

“To tell politicians that you must not politicize crime. If anybody is involved in crime, we must not reduce it to party politics. When somebody is a cultist, don’t say that that person belongs to party A, that is not fair. We have to fight crime. We have to join hands to bring lasting peace to this state.”

The governor explained that the state government resolved not to monetise the amnesty programme because it wanted the cultists and kidnappers to sincerely embrace the programme. He assured all the repentant cultists and kidnappers that they will be duly rehabilitated and made to become useful to the society.

He said: “We did not exchange money for the return of arms. It was voluntary. We said, return your arms and denounce any cult group you belong to and we will give you amnesty. All those who have not gone back to crime, be rest assured that nobody will arrest you. But if by tomorrow, you return to crime, know that amnesty does not cover you.

“I urge the Federal Government to give us the support we require for peace to reign in this state. Rivers State is the Treasure Base of this nation. If there is crisis in Rivers State, it will affect Nigeria and so for us as a government, we will continue to partner with Federal Government to achieve zero tolerance to crime. We will not support crime. It doesn’t matter the political divide. If you are involved, you will face the law.”

Presenting the report of the State Amnesty Programme Committee, Sir Kenneth Chinda said the committee was successful because it adsopted a direct dialogue approach by establishing direct, honest, transparent and sincere contacts with leaderships of the various groups through a discreet confidence building process.

The committee called on the State Government to disband all armed community vigilance groups and also direct all communities to surrender their weapons to the relevant security agencies.

He informed the governor that a total of 22, 430 cultists and militants renounced cultism and embraced the amnesty offer, while they surrendered 911 arms, 7661 assorted ammunition and 147 explosives.

The submission of report by the Rivers State Amnesty Committee was witnessed by all the Service Commanders in Rivers State.


Simeon Nwakaudu,
Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor,
Electronic Media.
15th November, 2016.

Source; http://www.nationalhelm.net/2016/11/go-after-all-cultists-wike-tells.html

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see more >>> http://www.nationalhelm.net/2016/11/go-after-all-cultists-wike-tells.html

na now u wake up abi

fire for fire...

Hell is about to let lose

but what's the gain of this cultism sef??

just to kill and get killed

Goods are expensive than lifes now God they will ever see us.

This is a case of a POT calling KETTLE black.

WIKEd himself is the God father of Cultists.

It's on record that he used cultists to "win" the Rivers State Governorship Election.

Who are these politicians deluding?

A cult member telling security agents to go after his members.

I don't know of the North, but most politicians in the East and West are cult member.

#Nonsense. Wike should surrender first!

NOTE: I do not support cultists neither will I ever support them.

Pave the way sir

Ehhh. War start

God will punish and not forgive those who empowered these guys with guns

Omo see ground..

Nice one Wike!

The slayer of Amathief.

mehn are not smilling ooo..see magazines!!

K

The state was at war before, aba

start with wike first.....the king and chief promoter of cultism,militants and violence

What a pity! Nigeria police needs to be told before it does its work. Even to arrest a criminal it needs to be sure he is not connected to a politician or the wealthy. It only deals with the poor and those without connection. Yea, it's that bad!

Go after cultists?
After you have won your own election?
Governor [size=30pt]use-and-dump![/size]

How can there be peace when this amount of amunition is in the hands of people illegally in just one state?

Nigeria is sitting on a gun powder!

Imagine what would be revealed if bokoharam decides to lay down their weapons like this...

Lawless country!

i smell guns everywhere in river state

Where and how did they acquire this weapon?

After his boys have dropped tools it's time to kill all others.

chaii see material for ground

I don't believe you, you need more people.

Nice one from my darling governor

This is a good thing "Governor fantastic".

themall:
Go after cultists? After you have won your own election? Governor [size=30pt]use-and-dump![/size]

which day u wan get sense.......