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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Police, Navy tighten security in Rivers over alleged planned attack
REACTING to a tip-off on a re-occurrence of the August 15, 2004 bloody attack on the Ataba Community of Rivers State, its Police Command on Wednesday ordered increased deployment of mobile policemen to the area.
The command also demanded for naval patrol of the creeks, its boss, Mr. Sylvester Araba, has disclosed.
The development, according to Araba is because of a petition he received alleging another imminent attack on the desolate community before the weekend.
In the last attack on the community, over 60 persons were gruesomely murdered and property worth millions of naira was destroyed.
Araba told The Guardian that security agencies were at alert keeping a close watch on Ataba, which has been deserted on the fear of another attack similar to that of last month.
On Monday, one of the chiefs involved in the tussle for the kingship of Ataba, "Okan-Ama" Chief Benson Egwenre, led a team of chiefs and elders of the community to submit a petition to the state Commissioner for Police, warning against another attack on the community, which is yet to recover from the former attack. They alleged that the attack was sponsored by one of the factions involved in the tussle for the Okan-Ama stool.
In the petition by Chiefs E.E. Igbifa and D.O.S Ituk, they also alleged that credible information was given to them that plans had been concluded by militant members of one of the factions in the lingering Ataba chieftaincy feud acting in concert with hired mercenaries from outside the community to launch another attack before the end of this week.
The chiefs and elders who looked worried because similar warnings in the past like the one that culminated in the August attack had been treated with levity.
They alleged they had been reliably informed that the target of the planned fresh attack named Operation Burn Down Ataba was not only to kill the few sons and daughters of the community who had the courage to return to their deserted homes after last month's crisis but to burn down all the houses belonging to members of Chief Egwenre's faction.
The ultimate purpose of the looming attack, according to the chiefs was to make the remote riverine community inhabitable.
On efforts to forestall further destruction of lives and property, the Police Commissioner told The Guardian in Port Harcourt on Wednesday that relevant security agencies in the state had been alerted and that they are keeping a close watch over the community.
In view of the intensification of security in the state following series of armed insurrection in some parts, he remarked that there was no cause for
alarm.
"There is no problem. We are on ground. We have the navy covering the waterways and patrolling the area. We have the air force keeping surveillance while the police are on ground. They should not continue to express anxiety. Our security men are already on the ground. We will definitely forestall any act of aggression on the community," Araba said.
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