Amaechi Asks Militants to Surrender Weapons
From Ahamefula Ogbu in Port Harcourt, 01.03.2008



Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has asked militants and cultists in the state to surrender their arms and get amnesty from his administration or continue in their ways and be crushed.
And barely 24 hours after the fresh attack on Port Harcourt, the state capital, Amaechi also yesterday paid a surprise visit to the camp of the Leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, Mr. Ateke Tom, at Okochiri Forest in Okrika where he vowed to arrest him if he continued to foment trouble.
But reacting to the offer to lay down arms, Ateke said he would not surrender any arms as it was a way of luring them into incapacitation and eventual arrest.
Amaechi who visited the base of the militants amidst tight security said he might consider pardon for the warlord if he surrendered his weapons to the Joint Task Force, saying no individual can be stronger than the state.
While addressing Okrika people, the governor regretted that rather than be good role models and contribute positively to the overall development of the state and the country, Ateke was organizing a band of boys and terrorizing the area and the state.
“If keeps his weapons, believe me, we will chase him to anywhere he goes,” he said.
On Tuesday night at the annual state banquet, Amaechi had described the fresh attack where 14 people died on New Year day as “baptism of fire”, which he said he had survived.
The governor, who acknowledged the renewed security challenges few days after lifting the four-month curfew in the state, assured the people of the state that the hoodlums terrorising the state would fail.
“While we appreciate the difficulties of these youths, we shall advise in very strong terms that they surrender their weapons to government while we look for a way of rehabilitating them. Those who surrender their weapons will be granted amnesty while those who refuse to do so will face the wrath of the people and that of the Rivers State Government,” the governor said.
Amaechi however insisted that criminalities like hostage taking and kidnappings would not solve the problem and were not legitimate means of expressing grievances.
But reacting to the call for the surrender of arms in exchange for rehabilitation and amnesty, Ateke, who spoke with THISDAY on phone yesterday, lampooned the government for its insincerity, saying previous efforts with the same tactic yielded no positive result.
Ateke asked rhetorically: “Did Amaechi say we should surrender our weapons for amnesty? When did he say that? He is not sincere. So he wants us to submit our weapons again so that they will come and arrest us the way they arrested Dokubo Asari after he submitted his weapons? It will not happen.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said two of those killed in the wake of Tuesday's fresh violence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, were its workers.
NPA has therefore called for a full scale probe into the killings.
A Transport Officer, Mr. Henry Kebbi, and Tech-nician II, Mr. Olatu-nbosun Macleans working at Onne Ports were among those the police said they killed in exchange of fire.
Addressing newsmen yesterday in Port Harcourt, Mr. Emmanuel Inyang, Chai-rman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Ports Authority and Mr. Stanley Amadi, Chairman of the Maritime Workers Union said what happened was nothing short of extra-judicial killing by the police.
They said they were irked by the hurried burial of the victims and have asked the government to exhume the bodies.
“What happened to these our colleagues is really unfortunate and we want to use this opportunity to debunk the claim of the police. Mr. Henry Kebbi was Traffic Officer with the NPA, Port Harcourt and Mr. Maclean Olatubosun, a Technician 11 (Mechanical) with the NPA Onne.”


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