Daily Independent Online.
*
Thursday, July 01, 2004.
Curbing gangsterism in Rivers
Coming at a time violence has literally
assumed the character of a social malaise in Rivers State, the recent passing
into law of a bill prohibiting secret cults and the use of offensive weapons in
the State is indeed a welcome relief.
It is good riddance to bad rubbish. But we see the action of the Rivers State Government as
overdue if not belated. That it
has taken almost two years for the government to muster a legal response to the
pervasive violence and urban terror shows that there are, indeed, very powerful
forces behind these agents of death.
It is most alarming that in a State of barely three
million people, there exists an inexhaustive list of over one hundred and four
killer gangs who unleash a reign of terror on the capital,
Port Harcourt, its environs and the furthest reaches. Even when their names and leaders such as “the Bush
Boys” and one Ateke Tom are common knowledge, these heartless gangs still
operate freely with sophisticated weapons like AK 47 assault rifles and
dynamites. From the recent
revelation by the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sylvester Araba,
that one AK 47 assault rifle costs about N500,000.00 (five hundred thousand
naira), it is glaring that these hoodlums are sponsored by very wealthy
individuals. And the incessant
killings are over nothing other than political leadership, chieftaincy titles
and royalties from oil companies.
What is even more frightening and terrifying is the
highly developed terrorist infrastructure and logistic commands these gangs
possess as well as tactical capabilities.
In one of the scenes of their numerous attacks, a boat, laden with arms
and ammunition, berthed at an isolated waterfront with a detachment of hefty
young men in fake mobile police uniforms who tactically hijack a moving
bus. The team linked up with the
boat and, in a commando fashion, effected the transfer of the arms into the
bus. The team then moved to Echue - Iloabuchi axis in the Diobu area of Port
Harcourt and rained bullets indiscriminately in all directions felling over ten
people in the process.
It is a grim spectacle of untold bloodshed and
terror. Yet, in spite of the
frequency and regularity of this bizarre burst of irrationality, the police
appear helpless as no arrests seem to have been made since September 2003 when
these armies of occupation started holding residents of Port Harcourt and its
environs to ransom. This has
reinforced speculations that certain key government officials within Rivers
State and Abuja are behind the madness afflicting the State and by extension
the nation.
While not keenly interested in highlighting the
identities of the suspected sponsors of this horrendous violence, as we believe
that every dog has its day, we
implore Governor Peter Odili to use his good offices and connections with the
central government, to sanitise such known terrorist abodes as Bundu Waterside,
Abonnema Wharf, Marine Base, Diobu (all in Port Harcourt), as well as Buguma
and Okrika.
If it is true that some of these boys were armed by
politicians during the 2003 election campaigns but could not be disarmed by
their sponsors then we are in for trouble. Political violence has become Nigeria’s major problem. This is because these gangs are
gradually developing into orgnised rebel groups which inadvertently pose a
frontal challenge to the legitimacy of the State. When this happens, government itself would realise that it
has virtually no place to run to amidst considerable chaos and confusion. For we see the failure of social conditions
to provide these youths with a more civilised alternative than mob action as an
implicit indictment of the ruling class. In the inhuman nonchallance of
Nigerian politicians to the suffering of the people lies the root of the
apparent disorientation of the youth and
the recourse to violence.
But that is not to condone such atrocities.
Our warning to our politicians is therefore that any
government that gets to power through the orchestration of political violence
will ultimately be forced out of power through political violence. As for the youth who are shamelessly
engaged in meaningless bloodbath thereby turning their communities into
theatres of war for a pot of porridge, they will only succeed in mortgaging
their future since the aftermath of war is usually loss of oneself, loved ones,
property and of opportunities for further education and economic
advancement. God Himself commanded
that man must not kill. We
therefore urge that these irrational acts of uncontrolled violence must cease
forthwith.
