The apex militia decision making body in the Niger Delta, �The Joint Revolutionary Council� (JRC) has accused the Rivers State Government of sponsoring the kidnap of toddlers in the state to cast aspersion on Ijaw and Niger Delta cause.
The Rivers State government however in a swift reaction denied it as untrue; stating that it has never at anytime sponsored or encouraged militant activities while it maintained that the Niger Delta cause was not an ethnic but a regional cause which transcended the interest of any particular tribe.
At least four children had been kidnapped and variously released allegedly without the payment of ransom. The popular ones that enjoyed publicity include the kidnap of St. Michael Stewart, the son of a Rivers State Assembly lawmaker, Linda Stewart, the kidnap of Margaret Hills, a Briton and lately, the kidnap of Price Ovunda Amadi from Iriebe, Rivers State.
The allegation was handed out by the spokesperson of the JRC, Cynthia Whyte in an online release where she claimed that they have confirmed the report of the State government using kidnap of toddlers as a larger campaign funded by the State government to impugn on the Ijaw and Niger Delta Struggle.
�We have received confirmed reports that the kidnap of toddlers as witnessed some time ago in the Bantustans of Rivers State is part of a larger campaign funded by the Rivers State government to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle. �The campaign started out with a government sponsored protest by black clothed women from the governor’s tribe who blocked a junction in Port Harcourt and another in Elele.