Scores of youths from Bonny Local Government Area, yesterday, converged at the main gate leading to Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt in protest against incessant attacks on boat passengers by sea pirates on the community’s waterways.
For centuries, the people of Bonny Island have not accessed their homes by road except through the creeks and sea, which join the community with other parts of the state.
The youths have been embarking on peaceful protests in Bonny Island since Tuesday, but they decided to storm Port Harcourt, yesterday to make their case before the state governor.
Earlier, the youths had gone to the headquarters of Bonny Local Government Council where they lamented the killing of two young men recently by pirates on the waterways.
But they left disappointed as the council chairman and his officials refused to address them after spending the whole day at the gate of the secretariat of the council.
The youth said they were angry that both the federal and state governments have not shown visible concern about their plight since the protest started.
Bonny, the host of multi-billion-dollar Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), SPDC-operated Bonny Crude Export Terminal, and other multinational oil companies can only be accessed by water.
The contract awarded by the Federal Government for construction of a road that would link the community with other parts of the state has suffered several setbacks due to inadequate funding.
Speaking to journalists in front of Rivers State Government House main gate in Port Harcourt, some of the youths vowed that they would not leave until Governor Nyesom Wike addresses them on concrete steps he would take to ensure adequate security on Bonny waterways.
One of the protesters, who simply gave his name as LongJohn Hart, said they were grateful to the governor over the recent commissioning of Bonny-Bille-Nembe Jetty in the Creek Road area of Port Harcourt.
But he queried, “What happens to us and our people along the insecure waterways when we take off from the jetty to and fro Port Harcourt?”
It was observed that the protesters carried placards of varying inscriptions, including #StopkillingofBonny people,” “Gov Wike, life is biggest project,” “Secure our Bonny waterways”, “We have lost too many lives”, and others.
As at the time of filing this report, the peaceful protesters were still at the protest venue.
However, in a bid to fight insecurity in the state, including on the waterways, Governor Nyesom Wike had launched ‘Operation Sting’ about a year ago, and donated gunboats and over 120 patrol vehicles to security agencies.
But despite this, insecurity has persisted on the waterways with frequent killing and robbing of passengers by pirates.