…Soku, Nembe Ready For Showdown
… Pile up Arms, Ammunition
Fresh crisis looms in Rivers State following series of inciting and inflammatory utterances coming from the top government officials, public servants and elected office holders, including Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi over the ceding of the some oil wells from Rivers to Bayelsa State.
The Rivers Governor on several occasions told his audience that his major reason to defect to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is as a result of the ceding of the Soku oil wells to Bayelsa.
Of recent, the alleged ceding of the oil wells to Bayelsa has taken another twist when the chiefs, elders and people of Soku community visited Gov. Amaechi in Government House.
During the visit, the people of the Soku community in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area declared their support for the APC. Authorities have began to play politics with Soku/Olusiri oil filed.
Few weeks ago, Gov. Amaechi lampooned the Amanyanabo of Abonnema, HRH Disrael Gbobo Bob-manuel for the statement issued, when Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State paid him a visit in his palace at Abonnema, headquarters of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area.
Gov. Amaechi described the Abonnema Monarch as a betrayal. Amaechi said, “ I heard my colleagues, the Governor of Bayelsa State went to Abonnema the other day and the Amanyanabo of Abonnema received him and said he was satisfied with the way the president was handling the oil wells issue. For me, that is a betrayal of his people. He is a king in Kalabari kingdom and he says he is satisfied that the Federal Government has taken the oil wells and Bayelsa is receiving the money. It is not about me. It is about the Kalabari people, it is about the Rivers people”.
Worried by the inflammatory statements issued by the Governor, the Bayelsa State Government has faulted Amaechi’s statement saying that, “there was no iota of truth in Rivers State Governor’s claim that Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, had wrongly paid the Bayelsa N17bn from the escrow account”.
Governor Dickson through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso Markson called on the affected communities, Nembe and Kalabari kingdoms, not to allow the unity of Ijaw nation to be affected by the antics of those who want to play politics over the disputed oil wells.
Information reaching our newsdesk had it that some week back, the people of Soku community met and deliberated on how to take over the disputed oil wells. One of the ways, they have considered to annex the Olusiri oil field is through arms struggle. There is a plan to declare war on the Nembe Kingdom from the Bayelsa State.
Arms, ammunition and other dangerous weapons have been piled up in some major camps in the creeks near Soku.
Nembe community as we are rightly gathered has also making frantic moves to ensure that it safeguards the Olusiri oil wells. Both Soku and Nembe communities are preparing for a final showdown. Sources said that if these two ancient communities were allowed to go to war over the disputed oil wells, it would affect the domestic economy of the country.
“Since the two coastal communities are recruiting dangerous youths to take over and protect the disputed oil wells, there is need for the governments from the both states to do something about it to avoid any disaster,” a source said.
Our correspondent in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State reported that the sea routes to the disputed oil wells are tensed up as gun carrying youths are constantly patrolling the creeks and the water ways.
The essence of the patrol is not known as at the time of filing in this report, but impeccable sources hinted this publication that, is to protect the oil field from intruders. ###
