Speaker of the Rivers State Youth Leaders Assembly (RSYLA), Prince Tonye Jeminimiema has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to take urgent action to stop the attacks of sea pirates on the waterways around Bonny Local Government Area of the State.

Jeminimiema, who made this call in a chat with Kristina Reports in Port Harcourt, said it was disheartening and utterly unacceptable for sea pirates to hold a community such as Bonny to ransom under the watch of the all the security agencies.

“Imagine a community such as Bonny LGA where all the economic giants of Nigeria are located – Shell, Mobil, NLNG, Chevron, etc – and all the security agencies complete and yet sea pirates can hold us to ransom for over four years now. What excuse does the Federal Government have for letting this fester?

“Our Governor, His Excellency, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike should go beyond giving gunboats to monitoring what the security agencies are doing to ensure they actually secure the waterways. He should not rely only on their security reports but find a way of getting on the spot assessment of what is happening on the waterways.”

The RYLA Speaker also used the opportunity to enjoin the youths of Rivers State, especially, those of his constituency, Bonny LGA to carry out their protests and other moves to force the hand of government at all levels to act in an orderly, responsible and matured way, urging them not to disrespect their leaders whether political or traditional or religious.

“I learnt that the youths who protested in Bonny the other day asked the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom to come and meet them at Willbros, I don’t think that was a demonstration of our collective respect for the throne of Bonny Kingdom. We need to respect our King and all of our leaders. We need to get it right.”

The Niger Delta activist, Prince Tonye Jeminimiema also demanded that the security agencies ensure they respect the fundamental human rights of the people in the course dealing with the protests, noting that Nigeria was a signatory to several treaties and conventions on protecting the rights of the people.

According to him, people have a right to freedom of expression, to protest what they see as not right, that right should not be taken away from them by the military and police. It should be protected. We are demanding action from the government on the waterways, to stop the sea pirates from attacking our people and this has to be done to reduce the risk our people face whenever they travel through those waterways”.