RSG, Aluu Disagree On Training Camp

The Amnesty Programme Committee of the Rivers State Government, seems to be at loggerheads with traditional rulers of Aluu Community following a disagreement over the use of a camp in the area for the training of ex-militants.

Consequently, the committee appears poised to invoke the executive powers of the state to break the resistance of the Aluu Chiefs against the use of facilities in the area for the training of repentant cultists and criminals.

The Chairman of the Amnesty Committee and Special Adviser to the Governor on Amnesty, Sir Kenneth Chinda, gave the indication last weekend when he paid a courtesy visit to traditional rulers of Ubimini and Egbeda communities in Emohua Local Government Area.

Chinda alleged that Aluu Community Chiefs were trying to stop the peace process of the amnesty programme, stressing that the state government would make use of any facility located in any community in furtherance of its mandate.

He said it would not serve any community any good to oppose the training of cultists in their various communities even as he called on the traditional rulers to support what the government was doing to promote peace and business security in the state.

Chinda pointed out that other communities in the past had donated lands for developmental purposes to the state government, adding that the Aluu people cannot control any land area in line with the Land Use Act.

However, in a reaction while speaking to newsmen, the Chairman of the Aluu Community Development Committee, Collins Amadi, alleged that the last time repentant cultists were camped and trained in the community, it affected the economy of the area negatively.

According to him, after the training then, the government did not demobilize them.

“After the training, the government did not vacate them for almost a year and this community, Aluu, and Omuwechi, which are the host communities of this particular, camp, were the most hit economically”, Amadi added.

He said that the training exercise brought a lot of criminality to the Aluu people due to the fact that they were left to remain behind at the camps after the exercise.