Save Peterside From Extinction, Church Cries Out

Concerned members of St. James Cathedral Anglican Communion, Peterside in Bonny Local Government Area have appealed for urgent intervention to save the ancient community from imminent submerge by the ocean surge.
A statement signed by some concerned members of the parish urged the Federal/ State governments, multi-national companies, well-meaning groups and relevant government agencies to urgently give attention to the fast degrading shoreline of the Island of Peterside.
It said the organisations could rescue the community by carrying out urgent sand filling and embankment of the shores of the community.
According to the statement, the call became necessary to forestall the collapse of the ancient church and its halls as well as safeguarding the cemetery, which includes the grave of Late Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye.
The statement expressed concern that the structures and cemetery in the area were at the verge of being submerged by the sea.
The Tide reports that the Late Elder statesman Harold Dappa Biriye was one of the founding fathers of old Rivers State and was at the forefront of the titanic struggle for the formation of the Rivers Chiefs and People’s Conference (RCPC), offshoot of the Calabar-Ogoja Rivers Movement, which translate to a pressure group and a political movement.
The Late Chief Harold Dappa Biriye was elected and represented the area at the Constitutional Conference of 1958 on the platform of Rivers Chiefs and Peoples Conference.
Late Harold Dappa-Biriye was one of the masterminds for the recognition of the Minority rights as entrenched in the Willinks Commission Report, and the consequent creation of the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority.

Igbiki Benibo