Ahead of the Conference of the Ibanise Kobiri (General Congress) of Grand Bonny Kingdom in Rivers State, the Bonny Improvement Association has called for a review of the security situation in Bonny Local Government Area of the State.

The BIA insists that issues surrounding the kidnap of the Banigo 5, Dema Abbey 2, and incessant sea pirates’ attacks on the Bonny waterways should form a critical part of the discussions during the Ibanise Kobiri Conference, regarded as the institution with the highest decision making powers in Bonny Kingdom.

President of the BIA Port Harcourt branch, Professor Sodienye Abere stated this is a statement he personally signed and made exclusively available to Kristina Reports on Monday, August 23, 2021 in Port Harcourt.

In the statement, the BIA called out both the political and traditional authorities in Bonny LGA to explain to the people the fate of the Banigo 5 and what steps were being taken to halt the spate of attacks on the waterways in the area.

The Banigo 5 comprising Thompson Allison, Theophilus Ibiama, Sunny Hart, Daniel Hart and Dagogo Jackmay were whisked away by daredevil kidnappers from a funeral venue at Banigo Isile-Ogono on Saturday, September 12, 2020. Their whereabouts were yet unknown a year after the incident.

On Tuesday, January 5, 2021, Macdonald Banigo and Kingsley Allison were brutally murdered by sea pirates at creek off Dema Abbey Community and dumped in the river.    

There have also been several other incidents involving the loss of lives and brutalization of passengers along the Bonny waterways. 

Among those called out to give explanations on the deteriorating security situation in Bonny LGA include the Chairman, Bonny Local Government Council, David Irimagha, the lawmakers representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Farah Dagogo, and Bonny Constituency in the State House of Assembly, Abinye Pepple, and the Bonny Chiefs Council (BCC).

Others were the Chiefs and Heads of Captain Hart Major House; Se-Alabo Reginald Hart, Nwaoju Allison Major House; Se-Alabo Emmanuel Allison, Ibiama Finecountry Major House; Se-Alabo Leslie Finecountry, and Jackmay Chieftaincy House; Se-Alabo Dr Sodienye Jackmay.   

“The Bonny Improvement Association (BIA) Port Harcourt rose from its August 2021 General Meeting with the following resolutions:

1. The Bonny people are progressively restive over the spate of loss of individuals, predominantly Bonny indigenes to kidnappings, sea/creek piracy and outright abduction. The chief security officers of the kingdom must be held responsible since they are not briefing or speaking out for the people.
2. The political and traditional arrow heads of the kingdom/ local government must be held responsible for:
3. The Banigo 5 of 12 September, 2020 still missing till date.
4. The Dema Abbey 2 of 5^th January, 2021 killed in cold blood without booking the culprits/perpetrators till date.
5. The series of piracy activities still having the upper hand in kingdom waters. The silence is too prolonged, requiring state and national intervention. 
6. The BIA, therefore, calls on all relevant Bonny groups and sympathizers to condemn this malicious wanton wastage of human and materials resources of the kingdom.”

Bonny LGA is host to oil and gas facilities belonging to Nigeria’s economic behemoths; the Nigeria LNG, Shell Nigeria, ExxonMobil, and Chevron, among others, which ramp up over a trillion naira annually into the nation’s coffers. The Bonny River is also the gateway into Nigeria’s South-Eastern economic hub comprising the Port Harcourt Harbour, Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne, Nigeria’s oil and gas capital, Port Harcourt, and commerce capital, Aba. 

The calls for an overhaul of the security configuration of the area appears belated given the presence of all aspects of the nation’s security architecture in the island LGA, except the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

Bonny LGA is host to two divisions of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), one division of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the 146 Battalion of the Nigerian Army (NA), Forward Operating Base (FOB) of the Nigerian Navy (NN), and a division of the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

June 2021 also saw the groundbreaking ceremony of the NLNG Train 7 by President Muhammadu Buhari, which is situated in the island and will see the expansion of the NLNG plant from 22 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 30 mtpa.

The Nigeria LNG, through its outgoing Managing Director, Tony Attah, has said that aside attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), the project will create more than 12,000 new jobs during the construction phase and also diversify the revenue portfolio of the Federal Government.

All of these imperatives will further entrench Bonny Island as a thriving economic hub churning out unprecedented revenue earnings for the Nigerian Government, thus reinforcing the demand by the Bonny Improvement Association for critical and urgent interventions by the Rivers State and Federal Governments.