It was not expected at that place and time, even though the city was in the throes of violence. It was in the twilight of the day in the ever-busy Eleme Junction, an intersection in the far-flung end of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where the road leading to the main Port Harcourt Refineries; the one leading to Aba, a major commercial hub in the East; and the East-West Road meet. A black jeep pulled to a stop, followed by a Toyota bus. And, suddenly, a cacophony of heavy gunshots boomed, shattering yet again the fragile peace of that ill-fated Saturday.
In the ensuing pandemonium, a pregnant woman caught the bullet, staggered and fell, thus ending her days on earth. Two brothers who were eking out their living by hawking wares at the junction lay in the pool of their own blood. And, very sadly, a nursing mother, confounded by the pandemonium, attempted to cross the dual carriage road to safety while clutching her baby. In the process, she lost her balance and the baby fell. Another motorist, speeding to safety under the overpowering influence of survival instinct, crushed the baby!
Sounds like a scene from a horror movie? The above was one of the many orgies of violence let loose on the city of Port Harcourt a few weeks ago by the militants that paralysed the city’s boisterous daily activities, leaving in its wake smears of blood that have defied the downpour of the season. And even the broad daylight provided no respite, no thanks to the dare devilry of the militants. The nightfall was shattered by the booming sound of dynamite and AK 47 rifles. Caught in the midst of the battle, the state apparatuses of security available at the time were at their wits’ end as even the governor became helpless. The city was at the brinks of a near Dafur situation until the Federal Government intervened and drafted in the military to save the city from itself.
Now, how did the city of Port Harcourt, once acclaimed for its aristocratic ambience as ‘The Garden City’, get to this sorry climax of violence? The facts are no longer in dispute that what was started long ago by Isaac Adaka Boro and later taken to a commendable intellectual plane by the late Ken Saro-Wiwa as a non-violent approach to agitation for the betterment of the people of the Niger Delta, through the advocacy of resource control, has since assumed another life entirely. It has become a bourgeoning corporate entity where the flourishing businesses of oil bunkering, pipeline vandalisation, hostage taking, extortion and political thuggery have become the top price gainers. This is made sadder by the fact that even the ordinary folks of the area who ought to be the beneficiaries of the outcome of a legitimate resource control agitation are not spared.
It is worthy to note that what appears to be relative peace in the other Niger-Delta states of Bayelsa and Delta in comparison with the prevailing mayhem in the city of Port Harcourt can be explained. It may be attributed to the decision of the governments of those states to continue with the culture initiated by their predecessors. It is also attributable to their decision to appease the hoodlums with a share of the states’ allocations from the federation account from time to time. It has been confirmed that the refusal by the Omehia-led government to pander to the whims and caprices of the hoodlums as was the case with his immediate predecessor informed the angst to make the state ungovernable for the governor.
The relative peace currently being enjoyed in the city in the aftermath of the raid by the military has collapsed the mythical wall of invincibility built around the hoodlums in the perception of the people.
Against the above backdrop, it has become pertinent to call on the Federal Government to develop a specialised military unit within the larger military system, specially trained in creek warfare and equipped with the capacity and capability to counter on all fronts the activities of the hoodlums who take advantage of the seeming impenetrable creeks to carry out their criminal acts. This must not be interpreted to mean a call for militarisation of the Niger Delta to muzzle the legitimate and non-violent agitation for resource control.The call has become necessary in view of the fact that by their traditional orientation, the limitations of our existing military and paramilitary men and officers in creek warfare have become glaring.
It is beyond doubt that despite the graveyard calm now in Port Harcourt, it is not yet uhuru. Every indication points to the fact that overwhelmed by the superior numerical strength of the military, the hoodlums have merely changed base by retreating to the very many not-easily-navigable creeks that dot the terrain of the Niger Delta. The hoodlums only cease fire for a while, restrategise to unleash a more devastating attack on the people, and then retreat to their fortress, the creeks.
Chris E. Agbiti
