Who are behind massive killings in Rivers?

Massive killings took place in Omoku, the oil-soaked urban headquarters of Ogba/Ndoni/Egba Local Council Area (Onelga) where Total and Agip are the biggest tenants; 26 persons allegedly hacked down in one night.

Newsmen who went round the area to inspect corpses were filled with horror all of last week but the more disturbing is the resumption of ‘noise’ over who were the killers and what the motive was. There is a hot rerun election in the area and some others and political giants seem eager to deliver their areas to prove a point.

The police, who should know best, came out to say rival cult gangs were at war, and that the police was ensuring peace and security. The state government, which has full grasp of the entire state, swiftly banned use of motor bikes (‘okada’) in four local council areas including Onelga.

The politicians took over from there. The All Progressives Congress (APC), which always claims to be at the receiving end, cried out through its state chairman, Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, saying his party had warned the police that mass killing of its members was in the offing, and expressed anger over the tag of cult clash by the same police.

After diligent investigations, the APC can authoritatively reveal that massive killing of members of the APC in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area [ONELGA] has resumed while the Nigeria Police has woefully failed to provide security for the people of the area.

Last Friday night, suspected members of a cult group invaded Omoku and environs where they picked on selected houses of APC members and murdered some of the occupants. By the last count, 26 persons were shot dead and some beheaded without police intervention.

The APC notes that a few hours later, the Rivers State Police Command came out with a statement blaming the killings on a fight between rival cult groups. We make bold to ask how the Police arrived at their conclusions (since the killing was one way and no counter-killing).

We are convinced beyond doubt that the Rivers State Police Command has resorted to a policy of drawing hasty conclusions for the purpose of either hiding their incompetence or protecting the interests of sponsors of the killers or both.

On January 14, 2016 the Rivers State Chapter of the APC, in a press statement, warned of a plan to commence the killing of APC members in ONELGA. Our evidence was that following security operations carried out by the military on January 11, 2016, the victims of the military operation accused the APC leaders of inviting the military and vowed to attack and eliminate prominent members of the APC anywhere in Onelga and Port Harcourt.  We raised alarm on this but in less than 24 hours of that warning, the killing of our members in Omoku and Port Harcourt began, totaling 26 so far.

The APC calls on the President Muhammadu Buhari to come to the rescue of the people of ONELGA. The primary purpose of government anywhere in the world is the protection of lives and property of the citizens. Government must take urgent steps to stem the ongoing unrestrained killings that have turned the State into a shameful killing field.

The next day, the PDP responded and said the APC had politicised the killings.  Party boss, Felix Obuah, who hails from Onelga and in fact was once the council chairman, said;

We regret that the opposition in the State rather than show concern for the acts of lawlessness by hoodlums in some parts of the State and sympathize with the families of victims has chosen to play the role of a judge.

More worrisome is the incitement being induced by the APC in the State through the chairman who has formed the habit of laying claim to ownership and party membership of victim(s) of any dastardly acts anywhere in the State just to create disaffection between the ruling party and the rest of the people.

This attitude of the APC State chairman casts a question mark on the genuine intention of the APC, more so, the interest in using the news of the dead ones to curry favour from the unsuspecting members of the public without any efforts to reach out to the families concerned.

The PDP therefore sees it as dangerous politics to always rush to the press just to cast aspersions not only on the PDP but also on security agencies for not doing the needful, instead of empathising with the situation and using his position to assist the security agents by providing clues to unravel those behind the mayhem for prosecution.

The PDP also wants Ikanya to be invited and interrogated by the police for admitting to be in possession of the video clips of the incidents which means he was privy to the killings and to also explain how he knew those who masterminded the act. (The videos were of the dead bodies on the ground).

The PDP however sympathises with the families of those who lost their loved ones in the unfortunate incidents, stressing that no reason or cause can justify the taking of one’s life by another. “We therefore without any reservations condemn the unwarranted waste of lives not only in ONELGA but also anywhere across the State and beyond.

It’s ungodly, criminal, stupid and unacceptable to avenge or address any misgivings through blood-letting. This is barbaric and obtains only in the animal kingdom.

May we also enjoin our security agencies to intensify their efforts in arresting insecurity in the State, arrest and prosecute anybody convinced to have been directly or indirectly involved, encouraged, abetted or behind the killings.

The PDP administration will never condone any act of lawlessness against any citizen of the State or those doing their legitimate business anywhere in the State irrespective ethnicity, religion or political affiliation etc.

The Governor Wike-led government is all inclusive and for all Rivers people”, the State PDP chairman, Obuah declared.

The Presiding Bishop of God’s Victorious Church, Omoku, headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, Eleanya Ugorgi, says that his younger brother was among those killed on the fateful day.

Narrating the event the bishop said: It was on Friday, and we started hearing gunshots between 9:00pm and 10:00pm or thereabouts. After a while, it ceased and shortly after, I heard a smash on my window, and if you go round, you will see that all the windows were smashed.

By the time the day broke, we saw my younger brother, Ekwela Ugorji, and the wife, Victoria, lying dead outside. My younger brother was beheaded. My younger brother was a politician and that is all that I know about him. My younger brother’s wife was a trader. He is in his mid-40s. I don’t think the killers are armed robbers. In Rivers State, actually you know this politics of a thing is what has been on the ground, and you talk of cultists. Cultism has been there, but it has been lying low. When you come to ONELGA, these two parties are really struggling to see who takes over.

But, things were also moving on well until after the announcement of the Supreme Court. We felt that everything had ended but before we knew it, things started coming up again. Gunshots of that day were something else; everywhere. I think, at least, 25 people were killed that night, and 10 were beheaded in Omoku here.

The father of another victim, Martin Ugo, who also spoke to newsmen, said his 31-year old son, Elemchukwu, and two others, were killed when the gunmen invaded his house that night.

“Unfortunately, they killed three people, including my son, Elemchukwu, aged 31. He was a butcher. They killed him in his room, and marched the other two people outside, and killed them. They were all shot. Then, my daughter in-law received gunshots too, but she did not die. If it is possible, government should step in, and I know if government really means it, they can stop this kind of things”.

Cult members are usually ready and available to carry out any massacre but they must be procured by someone or must be threatened to kill. Cult fighting leads to death on both sides, but straight job leads to trail of death on one side. The police have more to find out and tell the masses. It may however require a crack squad from the IG’s office to come unravel this ball bring rolled about by all parties and put a stop to the bloody joke, many have said.

For now, there is tension in Rivers State and Omoku is in silence.