Yuletide: Worsening insecurity worries Bayelsans as pirates, armed robbers take over sea, land

The worsening insecurity situation in Yenagoa metropolis and its neighboring towns and waterways is causing great concern among residents and business owners in the state presently.

In the last four weeks, over ten people including a very popular cow dealer, a former Commissioner and a brother to a former commissioner in the state have been brutally murdered by hired assassins. While armed robbers and cultists lay siege on land, rampaging sea pirates have overpowered the security agencies on the waterways, attacking sea travelers and traders on daily basis.

Some residents who spoke with The Guardian, said the spate of attacks on the people is becoming worrisome, especially in the last one month. An Igbo trader at Amarata, Johnson Ebube, said they now open only half of their shops while watching out constantly for any assembly of approaching youth groups, who constantly raid their shops while they engage each other in supremacy battle.

On Tuesday in Ekeki, a suburb of the state capital, rampaging cultists killed one, while sea pirates waylaid a passenger boat and killed one after robbing the other occupants of their goods. Armed cultists numbering about 10 stormed the Ekeki area of Yenagoa at about 7.30pm on Wednesday, robbing residents and shop owners of cash and valuables. A victim identified as Ifiemie, a 30-year-old son of an Ekeki village chief, was shot and was rushed to the hospital where he died a few hours later.

On Thursday, three armed robbers with pump action guns robbed the Head of Station, Silverbird Rhythm 94.7, at the NNPC petrol station, opposite an RCCG church. Some few days earlier, gun men in broad daylight, shot and almost killed Timaya at the gate of his house at Biogbolo, Yenagoa.

On Sunday last week, armed robbers successfully robbed Onisofie Owei, a reporter with AIT, assigned to Govt. House, Yenagoa. Speaking on the rise in criminal activities in the state, the State Commissioner for Police, Amba Asuquo, attributed to the rise to the insatiable greed of people especially during the Yuletide period. He also blamed the recent surge to the proliferation of small arms into the state, which has led to a lot of people having small weapons.