L-R BIRC Chairman, Aladiokuma Hart, Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom, His Majesty, King Edward William Dappa Pepple III, CON, Perekule XI, and Leader, Bonny Youths Federation, Simeon Wilcox.

The Chairman of the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre (BIRC), Aladiokuma Hart has blamed the fracas that happened around the Perekule Palace axis of Bonny Island yesterday on a petition by the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bonny chapter which he alleged misinformed and incited the youths of the community.

 In an exclusive chat with Kristina Reports, Hart said he was safe and going about his duties after the incident, regretting that the petition, which he described as ‘frivolous’ was behind the anger among the people that almost resulted in wanton loss of lives and destruction of properties.

 He, however, clarified that there was no racketeering going on in the employment bureau under his watch, stressing that it was only 1,400 persons that were employed in the PIVOT GIS shutdown operation.

 “It is the nonsense petition that APC wrote that was why they called the meeting. We went there, there was no crisis anywhere. No one was fighting. We just went there and had the meeting. They (chiefs) were convinced beyond all reasonable doubt because PIVOT brought their own (documents), NLNG came there. And NLNG said that as long as they are concerned this is a not an issue.”

 “I brought out all the documents that I have signed There is nothing like 2,000, there is nothing like 3,000. This shutdown has a total of about 1,400 and the Bonny quota, which is 60 per cent, is complete”. 

The APC, Bonny chapter was yet to react to this as at the time of this report.

 He further stated that it was while addressing the youths after the meeting that some alleged cultists came and started making trouble which prompted his exit from the scene.

According to him, the youths he was addressing were not restive and did not constitute any nuisance while he was with them.

 “All those stories are lies. I was talking to the people. The youths were not restive. They came because of the fallacious story that they heard and I was addressing it. That look I have gone to meet with the chiefs’ council, with the company and everybody. That all those stories are lies. Before these cult people came in.”

“I was addressing the youths from the back of the van that was carrying me while these boys were coming from the back. I did not even talk to them. This was before the police came. They started attacking the police without any provocation”.

 The township area of Bonny, headquarters of Bonny Local Government Area witnessed some turbulence yesterday evening when some hoodlums reportedly engaged the police and military in a fiasco. The area was on a lockdown by the joint military taskforce (JTF) as at the time of this report. 

Sources told Kristina Report that some aggrieved youths had confronted the BIRC Chairman, Aladiokuma Hart to express their dissatisfaction with the recruitment process in the NLNG’s shutdown operations. They said the youths were not happy with the alleged massive recruitment of non-indigenes for the shutdown at the detriment of indigent youths.

The BIRC Chairman debunked this allegations, saying that the recruitment process followed due diligence and the community’s quota was strictly adhered to.

 Some alleged cultists were said to have tried to disrupt the interaction between the youths and the employment bureau chief. When they could not achieve their sinister objective, they reportedly started trouble and later used stones and other dangerous weapons to attack the police.

•  Hart, a former Chairman of Finima Youths Congress, explained that transparency and accountability remains the epochal hallmarks of his administration at the recruitment centre, lamenting that those who were not comfortable that it was no longer business as usual were the ones fabricating falsehood against him and the centre.

 He expressed his determination to continue to pursue various job creation opportunities for the youths of the community in synergy with relevant stakeholders.