LAGOS— AMNESTY International claimed yesterday that up to 500 people were killed in clashes between rival armed gangs in Port Harcourt in the past month. “Up to 500 civilians are thought to have been killed and an unconfirmed number of persons were injured in fighting between rival armed groups, as reported to Amnesty International by reliable sources,” the international rights body said in a letter to Governor Peter Odili.
In recent weeks, two gangs have been fighting in the city and in several villages in the surrounding Niger Delta swamps. “In the last three weeks, there has been a spate of violence in the riverine community of Ataba in Andoni local government area on August 15, as well as in the Njemanze waterfront on August 22, the Marine base, Amadi creek on August 29 and the attack on the Platform Restaurant on August 31 in Port Harcourt,” Amnesty said.
Armed gangs involved in the fighting used AK-47 submachines guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, other sophisticated weapons and dynamite, it said. “Most of the victims were civilians, including an unconfirmed number of women and children, who had taken no part in the fighting and were killed or injured as a result of being targeted or indiscriminately shot at by members of the armed groups,” it said.
The organisation said the police had grossly played down the death toll. “The official number of deaths as confirmed by the Rivers State police command is 13 in the incident in Ataba, five persons in the incident at the Njemanze waterfront, three persons in the incident in the Marine Base, but no official figure was reported relating to the incident of the Platform Restaurant,” it said.
The Platform Restaurant is a guest house in Port Harcourt where members of an armed gang hacked off the hand of a senior armed forces officer early this month. “Amnesty International’s analysis on the other hand, as based on international and national media reports combined with statements from reliable sources, points to a figure of up to 500,” the organisation added.
Govt dismisses report
State officials have dismissed the Amnesty claims. “The 500 death toll is absolutely untrue and totally false. It is a report without foundation. The figure released by the police is what the government stands by,” Emmanuel Okah, spokesman for Governor Odili, said.
He said the decision to deploy troops was aimed at stopping the violence. “The government has a duty to protect lives and property. This explains the decision to send soldiers to complement the efforts of the police,” he added.
But Oronto Douglas of the Environmental Rights Action group, a local non-governmental organisation, condemned the military action. “The military option is not the best. It has created insecurity rather than security. Soldiers, by their training and temperament, don’t have respect for human rights and dignity,” he said.
He recalled the incidents in Odi, in Bayelsa State, in 1999 and Zaki-Biam in Benue State in 2001 where soldiers killed thousands of civilians in attempts to track down criminals. He said rather than turning to military action, the police should be properly equipped to combat crimein the country.
