Danbazzau meets Wike, says FG’ll partner with Rivers on security
*Violence in Rivers orchestrated to make state unsafe, Wike tells Minister
The Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau (rtd) has said that the Federal Government will partner with the Rivers State Government to fight insecurity in the state.
Danbazzau stated this during a visit to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Friday.
The minister added that he was in Rivers State at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari to assess the security situation of the state.
Speaking on behalf of the President, Danbazzau further condoled with the government and people of Rivers State over the killings at Omoku on New Year Day.
He said: “Rivers State is important to the country, particularly when it comes to the issue of the economy. It is very important that the Federal Government partners with the state to see how any security gaps can be closed for adequate protection of lives and property in the state.”
Responding, Governor Wike told the minister that there was an orchestrated plot to create the impression of insecurity through the promotion of targeted cult killings.
Wike added that the enemies of the state were at work, alleging that security agencies knew the cult kingpins terrorising flashpoints in the state.
The governor said “The security agencies have the profiles of all cult kingpins in different parts of the state and they know their locations. There is no wisdom in the politicisation of security. Insecurity can affect anybody.
You can never know the next victim of insecurity.”
The governor urged the security agencies and the Federal Government to deploy personnel to cult flashpoints in the state to forestall repeated attacks by cultists.
He said, “In every system, the security agencies know the flashpoints. Here we requested for the strengthening of security around these flashpoints, especially areas with high prevalence of cultists. I expected that security would be beefed up in these places.
“I ask this question: Is there an orchestrated plan to tag Rivers State as unsafe? Is the situation above the security agencies despite the information we have made available to them?”
He also blamed oil multinationals for the explosion of cultism in some communities, pointing out that the multinationals awarded surveillance contracts to cultists, adding that equipped with funds from multinationals, cultists procured sophisticated weapons with which they terrorised communities and law-abiding persons.
The governor said that the Rivers State Government had made several requests to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, for the deployment of special squads to tackle cultism and kidnapping. He alleged that they had failed to deploy the special squads to the state, despite the requests.
He continued: “The peculiar nature of Rivers State requires peculiar intervention. Before now, I have been shouting that we need support to fight crimes. I have made this complaint severally.”
The governor further berated politicians whom he alleged wanted to use the cult-related killings to play politics and make false allegations against the state.
