Worried by the unabated sea pirate attacks which have resulted in constant fears and loss of several lives on the waterways, Chairman of the Community Development Committee of Bille Kingdom, Dr Somieari Isaac, has pleaded with the government to deploy the Navy to station in the New Calabar and Sombriero Rivers to check criminality on the waterways.
Making the appeal in a chat with The Tide, last Monday, in Port Harcourt, the CDC Chairman noted that several months after the Governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, and the Chairman of DELGA, Dr Tony Philmoore, launched the ‘Operation Sting’ security outfit, the community is yet to see a single gunboat patrolling the waterways.
Narrating the sad incident of pirate attacks on two Bille-bound speed boats ferrying people going for a marriage last Saturday, Harri stated that about three persons were killed by the pirates.
“It was terrible, we lost three:the driver and his friend, and another, who had gone to rescue them. They were shot by the pirates”, he said.
On his part,the Chairman of Bille Community in Port Harcourt, Mr Fi-ibite Adokiye Bibi, said the government should position gun boats in strategic places on the rivers.
‘We are appealing to government to provide gunboats, that is the only solution’, Mr. Bibi said.
The Bille Chairman also expressed the belief that unemployment had also contributed to the menace of sea piracy.
He noted that oil companies operating in the area could help by engaging some of the youths to take their minds off criminality, saying that the oil companies could also engage in the security concern of the environment.
Tamunoiminabo Fyneface
