Rivers community cry out over attacks by pirates
By Amaka Agbu
The people of Bile Community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State are now bemoaning their economic downturn following incessant attacks by sea pirates on their Waterways.
Stakeholders in the Bile Community who spoke to journalists on the incident, said that sea pirates terrorising the Bile-Port Harcourt waterways were becoming so daring that last week alone the community recorded more than three attacks which left an indigene of the area, Mr Tamunoemi Kemuel, a father of six, dead by drowning as he was trying to escape from the attackers along with other passengers, last Sunday.
One of the stakeholders of the area, Mr. Dawari Romeo, said that the livelihood of the people of the community had been adversely affected following the repeated pirate attacks.
He asked: “Why are the government not coming to the help of the people of Bile Kingdom?
The people with only one route from Bile to Port Harcourt, we are already under severe economic blockade. What do they want us to do? To carry arms?”
He then stated: “We will not carry arms. We will wait on the government. We are still appealing to them now that it has come to a point where we cannot manage anymore. We believe that what is happening is more than mere sea piracy.
We believe it is a conspiracy. We have military base there. What are they doing? “While they are there, these boys were always coming out and attacking our people, so our people don’t come out for their economic activities.
If you go to my community, the cost of living is much more than we can bear because sea piracy has impacted negatively on our economy.”
Confirming the drowning of his brother during the raid, Mr. Ipalibo Kemuel said the Sunday incident in which the boat of the passengers were hijacked and valuables carted away by the sea pirates was the third in the past one week.
“The incident we are talking about happened on Sunday. It was the third within the week. On Monday, they seized the boat and ran away.
They attacked again on Thursday. It was yesterday that the boys caught them and threw them into the sea. In the process we are missing one boy,” he said.
He also called on the Rivers State House of Assembly to make public their findings on the incessant pirate attacks on the Waterways which was reported by the community last year.
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According to Mr. Lemuel, “Last year we even wrote a petition to the state House of Assembly.
A committee was set up, but uptill today nothing has come out of it. We are now calling on the state House of Assembly to revisit the issue. “They should give us gunboats for the waterways.
They should not only be interested in the economy of the people of Bile, but also in our welfare. Bile people’s lives matter. I don’t know why we are being subjected to this kind of suffering,” he lamented.
