Ex-MWUN president, Nted flays FG, Delta over rising insecurity

Immediate past President of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Tony Nted, yesterday, decried the failure of the Federal Government and Delta State to tackle insecurity across the country.

Nted, who stated this at a media briefing in Lagos, lamented the alarming rate of kidnappings on Ibada Elume Bridge, near Sapele in Delta State, alleging that some security agents were aiding and abetting the criminals for their personal gains.

He said the nation’s security operatives lacked the capacity to confront the hoodlums who had turned the nation’s roads to hell, even as he said the federal and state governments seemed to have lost control of the situation.

Nted, who is also former Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), noted that in the last two months, no fewer than 36 persons were kidnapped on the bridge with casualties recorded, including the kidnap of a labour leader at the Warri Port, Samson Pere.

He disclosed that it was after Pere and five others abducted on March 5, 2021, and released on March 8, 2021, after paying the huge ransom that their eyes opened to the activities of kidnapping gangs perceived to be herdsmen and their collaborators operating in the area.

Nted, who said Pere and the other victims were tortured, beaten up with cutlass, and almost killed among the 36 kidnapped persons, lamented that four persons were killed due to their inability to pay the ransom.

He urged the Federal Government and Delta state Government to mobilise security agents to comb the forest in the area and capture the bandits that had made the Ibada Elume Bridge and its environs a nightmare for motorists.

“It is sad that the kidnappings have continued to take place at the same place our security agencies have not done anything to stop it or apprehend the culprits.

“If the government cannot secure us from kidnappers and other criminal elements, it should at least, permit Nigerians to carry guns to defend themselves,” he said.