Security agencies in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State have intensified moves to halt further security breaches in the area just as they continue the search for the Banigo 5 and the Isaka 11.

This they intend to achieve through multipronged strategies aimed at gaining leverage over men of the underworld who have made it a pastime terrorizing residents there.

Bonny LGA has recently witnessed incidences of security breaches that has led to the death of several persons, kidnap of residents and a general perception of fear among the people of the area.

Five persons, Theophilus Ibiama, Dagogo Jackmay, Daniel Hart, Thompson Allison and Sunny Hart, were snatched by kidnappers on September 12, 2020 while attending a funeral at Finiapiri-Ama in Banigo Isile-Ogono Community.

Two persons, Macdonald Banigo and Kingsley Allison, were killed by sea pirates at Dema Abbey Community on January 5, 2021.

On Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 11 persons were kidnapped together with the speedboat they were traveling in along the waterways close to Isaka Community.

Both the Banigo 5 and the Isaka 11 were yet to be found as at the time of this report.   

But the Commanding Officer of the Forward Operating Base (FOB), Nigerian Navy, Akiama, Bonny, Navy Capt. Badamasi Yahuza has declared that this would no longer be case going forward, informing that the security agencies were strengthening their confidence building drive by initiating measures to checkmate the criminal elements in the area.

Navy Capt. Yahuza told Kristina Reports via a telephone interview on Saturday, March 6, 2021, in Bonny that the security agencies were rejigging the security architecture in Bonny LGA to assert leverage on the island, disclosing that clearance operations were also being intensified to shut down all illegal artisanal refining points in the area.

He confirmed that critical analysis of the causative factors behind the incessant acts of criminality in the area identified illegal artisanal refining, popularly called “kpo fire”, as the primary source of funding for criminal activities in the area.

Already checkpoints have been set up at strategic points around Bonny while the waterways have also seen a scale up in military activity. In the coming days, identified ‘kpo fire’ dumps allegedly sited at Dema Abbey, Oguede, Oloma area, Alasiakiri, Otobie area, Kuru-Ama, Kalaibiama, amongst others, alongside the refining points are expected to be cleared up.

On the fate of the Isaka 11, Officer-in-charge of the Marine Police in Bonny, Solomon Adeniyi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP),” told Kristina Reports over the telephone on Saturday, March 6, 2021, that security operatives were still on the trail of the kidnappers.

He debunked rumours that the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of N1 million per hostage, saying “I am not aware that the kidnappers are asking for a ransom of N1m per head, they (security operatives) are still on their trail”.

An anonymous source, who is close to the family of one of the abductees, confided in Kristina Reports that the criminals were demanding a ransom of N1 million for each of the hostages, adding that negotiations were on between individual families and the hoodlums.

DSP Adeniyi had earlier revealed to Kristina Reports that the Marine Police, Port Harcourt Division was coordinating the search and rescue operation.

So far, the fate of the 11 abductees hang in the balance since their kidnap in the early hours of that fateful Tuesday, with apprehension rising to unbearable limits among travelers on the Bonny-Port Harcourt sea route.