Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has taken a swipe on the opposition leaders criticising his government for joining force with security agencies to combat militants in the state.
Amaechi, during the week in an interactive session with some media executives, said when it was discovered that there was no political will to curb militants’ excesses, they had to take to military option which had been so helpful.
He fingered the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante Group, Mr. Tom Ateke, as leading a gang who engaged in all sorts of criminalities – robbing, raping and kidnapping innocent ones, while also engaging in crude oil bunkering, against their claim of fighting for Niger Delta people.
Amaechi said leaders of militant groups in the state were not fighting for the emancipation of the people of Niger Delta, as they claimed, but were only hiding under its guise to engage in criminality.
He said what could have led to a serious crisis in the state owing to incessant attacks at Bonny Waterway in Rivers State, leading to the killing of innocent indigenes and raping of women, was averted by combined efforts of his government and the Joint Task Force who traced the cause of the trouble to Tom Ateke’s camp.
“While we were preparing to lift the curfew we began to hear of attacks on the Bonny Waterway. Women were being raped, people were being killed and we traced it to Ateke’s camp.
As a result of this, Bonny people were mobilising to come and demonstrate in Port Harcourt. They had already demonstrated in Bonny.
If they came, it would have been rowdy and maybe violent, so together with the Military Commanders, Director of SSS (State Security Service) and the Police Commissioner, we flew to Bonny. And we reassured them that we would do everything within my power to assist the security agencies to arrest the situation.
When we came back and I asked the security chiefs why the situation was like that, first, they told me that there was no political will to deal with the problems because of the fear that they will say you are attacking our Niger Delta people and all that.”
Amaechi said this made them to decide on adopting what he called “Medium Level Force.
“We raised some questions about going after the man causing the problems. I said I think it is necessary to remove Ateke Tom from there.
We went after him and the discovery was shocking that in Nigeria, there was a shooting range belonging to a private man. In that shooting range was a camp and in it was a shrine and boats as big as the naval gunboats,” Amaechi said.