Bonny Lawmaker Tasks FG On Piracy

Member representing Bonny State Constituency, Hon. Abinye Pepple, has called on the Federal Government to act swiftly to check incessant piracy on Bonny waterways.
Hon. Pepple further called for the setting up of local security, underscoring the need to set up the neighborhood watch.
The Bonny lawmaker observed that the Neighborhood Watch which the Wike administration had floated had to be revived to fight local security challenges, as he condemned the rising spate of sea piracy on Bonny water ways.
Pepple who addressed protesting  residents from Bonny Local Government Area  at the Rivers State House of the Assembly complex recently assured them that government is not resting in finding solution to the sea piracy along the waterways.
The protesters called for an immediate end to the attacks and killings on the Bonny Island waterway by pirates.
The protesters, mainly the youths marched from UTC junction on Azikiwe road to Government House, Port Harcourt to register their grievances and to the Rivers State House of Assembly where the member representing Bonny Constituency, addressed them.
Part of their demands is for the government to set up security checkpoints on the Bonny high sea and empower security agencies to tackle violent crimes.
The Rivers State Government in July 2019 launched a special security initiative, codenamed “Operation Sting” in which patrol vehicles and gunboats were donated to security agencies to tackle violent crimes on roads and waterways in the state.
The Rivers State Police Command last week deployed 366 special constabularies to various localities for its community policing initiative, but the Bonny protesters said there had been no improvement in the security situation in Bonny.
Bonny Local Government Area can only be accessed through the high sea, as the Federal Government’s 120 billion Naira, 37-kilometer bridge to connect the island to mainland Rivers State is yet to be completed.
Some residents had earlier on Monday staged a protest on the island over the insecurity which they said had claimed many lives.
The protesters told The Tide that the most recent attack was on January 5, 2021, when two indigenes drowned in the river after pirates attacked their boat.
They added that the pirates after the attack made away with valuables from the passengers, and asked them to jump into the high sea.