Tension averted in Bonny as shutdown suspended

The total shutdown which began in the early hours of Monday has been lifted.

Tension began to build up Sunday night when members of the Bonny Youth Federation (BYF) intensified mobilisation for shutting down all entry and exit routes to the Island including markets, offices, etc.

This is said to have raised concerns that aroused some of the biggest stakeholders in Bonny local council area of Rivers State including the the multinationals such as the NLNG and the multinationals.

The state government was understood to have been contacted and the state police command allegedly moved.

The Finima Youth Congress (FYC) which ought to be a wing of the Bonny Youth Federation however threw a spanner in the mobilisation effort when the body released a statement disassociating Finima people from what they termed invasion of their area by Bonny people.

Read also: Bonny Kingdom Development Committee assures on non-violence at proposed protest

This attracted instant but vitriolic reaction from the Bonny Youth Federation and the Bonny Kingdom Development Committee who said the Finima youths were sponsored to sabotage the protest.

Probably sending a confrontation the next day, the authorities and probably the IOCs began contacts to stop the protests.

Discussions were said to have continued all of Sunday night but the youths had already moved in to implement the decisions.

Work and movement resumed in Bonny by at about 9am.

It was gathered that a truck was reached to suspend the protests, reopen the Island, and allow a meeting to hold between the IOCs led by the NLNG and the Bonny people in two days time.

The groups that held down the town moved to the Government Secondary School in Bonny to dispel the anger and energy they had planned to pour during the shutdown. They now resorted to drumming, singing, and dancing.

The Bonny Kingdom Development Committee chairman, Edward Hart, was billed to address the crowd and direct the line of action.