File: Hooded kidnappers

* Community Youth leader  lament absence of operational vehicle for existing Police station.

Okafor Ofiebor Port Harcourt

Residents of Bunu community in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State are now living in fear following the invasion of their area in early hours of  Saturday, August 8 by some unknown gunmen who shoot sporadically for several hours of the night.

It was learnt that their fears is further heightened that though they woke up to see pool of blood in some parts of the community, it was difficult to ascertain the number killed as it seem that the assailants disappeared with their corpses of their victims.

Confirming the incident, the youth leader of the community,  Justin Wabah, said heavy shooting occurred in the community around 2am and a thick pool of blood was later discovered at the Bunu-Taaga Road by now abandoned Rivers State Songhai farm.

He however said that despite the pool of blood, there were no corpses or any injured person seen, suggesting that the dead and those injured might have been taken away by the gunmen.

Wabah said that the community has been experiencing incessant killings in recent times as there  is no noticeable presence of security operatives on patrol in the area, regretting  that the nearest Police Division has no patrol vehicle.

“The volume of blood suggested some persons may have been killed and the corpses taken away. We searched the surrounding bushes but could not find any body. Some residents ran into the bush without light in that thick darkness in fear, sustaining injuries in the process.

“We have been experiencing much killings here and there and it is not giving us a good face. We need security patrol. Koroma Police Division has no patrol vehicle. We need regular Police presence on this our road because this is not the first time we have recorded this very act.”

However, it was learnt that the manner of invasion of the community suggests rival cult gang reprisal attack as there has not been any form of communal clashes in the area for quite some time.

There has not been Official confirmation from the Police Command at the time of filing this report.

Recall that on 26 of June 2020, some youths claimed to have denounced cultism in Tai Local Government Area, a part of in Ogoniland and submitted their ‘operational weapons.’

The youths took advantage of the amnesty programme initiated by the Tai Local Government Chairman in Ogoniland Dr. Jacobson Barineka Nbina.

There were reports that the council boss released the sum of 7.3 million naira to those who submitted weapons and charms they use in their operations.

However, Beatrice Akeenam, a youth leader from the local government expressed reservations over the nature of weapons submitted. She alleged the youths were not being sincere with the number of arms in their possession, insisting that the number of cultists related attacks and deaths does not tally with those presented at the ceremony.

Speaking in the same vein, the Spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, SP Nnamdi Omoni,  described purported denunciation of cultism and alleged surrendering  of weapons by alleged cultists organized by the Tai Local Government Council as a charade.

Omoni, who noted that the alleged  the cultists refused to surrender their sophisticated weapons said the beneficiaries of the amnesty programme were not ready to cooperate with the local government authorities and agents of government.