The joint security services in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, comprising the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, and the Nigeria Police, amongst others, say they had to disperse a protest organized by the Okolo-Ama Ikpangi in Bonny Island this morning to forestall an imminent breakdown of law and order.

The Okolo-Ama Ikpangi, a socio-cultural pressure group in Bonny LGA, had staged a protest this morning at the Willbros junction along the Bonny-Finima Road to draw attention to the menace of sea piracy on the Bonny River and calling on the federal, state and local governments and the security agencies to take action to checkmate the ugly trend.

But security operatives had to step in disrupt the protest when the protesters blocked the road preventing both pedestrian and vehicular movement, especially, workers on their way to their work places that morning.

In a chat with Kristina Reports, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Bonny Island, Navy Captain Kola Oguntuga said the action of the security operatives was aimed at securing the area to forestall a breakdown of law and order as hoodlums could have taken advantage of the escalating situation to cause mayhem.

“Before the situation will get out of hand because you know, in this circumstance, some of these hoodlums can just take advantage of it. See shops around there. Before you know what is happening they can now increase the hardship on people. They will start looting shops. They say it is peaceful protest but I told them ‘you cannot block me and say it is peaceful protest”.

“I pleaded with them to leave the place and go and do the proper thing but they said no, that they are waiting for the King to come there. How can you say you want the King to come there? How can the King come there? They said they want the King to come here, they want the Local Government Chairman to come there. I said you guys are not realistic”.

He stated that “that was why we had to disperse the protest. And you could see that we dispersed it peacefully. At least there were no gunshots, nothing. That is why I said we cannot allow this thing to continue till daybreak”.

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The Navy boss called on stakeholders in the community to collaborate with the security agencies to find a lasting solution to the issues of insecurity in the area, saying he had proposed that the boat owners and other maritime business operators in the area should agree on the timing for the boat movements and a convoy arrangement to enable the security agencies to provide armed escorts for them at the agreed travel times to and fro Port Harcourt.

“Before now, I called the boat owners association to my office and I said to them let us have timing that boats would be moving so that the security agencies along the waterways will know that by a certain time a group of boats would be moving. Let us stay and assist and protect those boats that are moving”.

“There is no way the military will be on water 24 hours, seven days a week. The boats we are using will have to be refuelled and the logistics are not there. But if you make your own sacrifice and I make my own sacrifice we can curb this things”.

According to Oguntuga, this would make easier for the security operatives to serve them better, secure the waterways better, restore the atmosphere of peace along the sea route, and also restore the confidence of travellers utilizing the Bonny-Port Harcourt sea route.

He further called on residents of the area to provide the security agencies with relevant information to enhance their operations, saying this was critical and would work for everybody concerned.

The blockade by the Okolo-Ama Ikpangi protesters this morning caused a heavy traffic that built up all the way to First Bank junction with several workers stranded, unable to proceed to their places of work.

Meanwhile, the Okolo-Ama Ikpangi, in a message to Kristina Reports, condemned the lack of action by the federal, state and local governments as regards securing the Bonny-Port Harcourt sea route, calling on them to take urgent action to safeguard the lives of the Bonny people, stressing that “Bonny Lives matters”.

“Our people are being robbed, maimed, and killed and nothing is being done. We are ready to work with the security agencies to end this attack on our homeland. We urge them to rise to the occasion, we will give them our full support but they must act to stop this menace on our land”.