With the just concluded amnesty programme by the Rivers State govenment, about 22,430 repentant cultist surrendered their arms and ammunition, on Tuesday.
According to main stream media, the government also
disbanded all vigilante committees in the state with directives to the
security agencies to take charge of scrutinising such committees.
Gov. Nyesom Wike of
Rivers announced this during the submission of the report of the Rivers
State Amnesty Programme by its committee in Port Harcourt.
He described the Amnesty Programme as very successful since about 22, 430 cultists accepted the amnesty.
Wike
also said that for the fact that 911 assorted arms, 7661 assorted
ammunitions and 147 explosives were surrendered made the programme a
success and the state relatively peaceful.
He, however, said that his administration had zero tolerance to crime and criminality.
“To show that Government is serious, I hereby disband all vigilante committees in the various communities.
”I
direct the security agencies to make sure that we don’t have such
committees except they profile their members to prove that they don’t
belong to any cult group.
“Initially,
people felt it was a political game. I thank God Almighty that we have
proved our critics wrong that we are serious to ensure the security of
lives and property in the state,” he said.
Wike
explained that the state government did not monetise the amnesty
programme as it preferred the cultists and kidnappers to sincerely
embrace the programme.
He assured all the
repentant cultists and kidnappers that they would be duly rehabilitated
and made to become useful to the society.
”But if by tomorrow, you return to crime, know that amnesty does not cover you,” the governor said.
The
governor who said time for amnesty is over also directed security agencies to go after all cultists and
kidnappers who refused to voluntarily accept the amnesty offer.
He said ”Since we have given you the opportunity and you have refused to surrender, you have become enemies of the state.
”The
state will fight to the last to make sure that criminality is reduced
to the barest minimum so that investors will continue to have confidence
to invest their funds in the state.”
Wike
further cautioned the politicians not politicise crime, adding that anybody that
was involved in crime should not be reduced to party politics.
According to him, when somebody is a cultist, don’t say that that person belongs to party A, that is not fair.
”We have to fight crime; we have to join hands to bring lasting peace to this state,” the governor said.
He then called on the Federal Government to support the state with adequate security as it is the treasure base of the nation.
”If
there is crisis in Rivers State, it will affect Nigeria and so for us
as a government, we will continue to partner with Federal Government to
achieve zero tolerance to crime.
”We will not support crime. It doesn’t matter the political divide. If you are involved, you will face the law," he added.
Mr
Kenneth Chinda, the Chairman of the Amnesty committee, who is also the
Special Adviser to the Governor on Amnesty, presented the report of the
committee to the governor.
He said the committee
was successful as it adopted a direct dialogue approach by establishing
direct, honest, transparent and sincere contacts with the leaderships of
the various groups through a discreet confidence building process.
The
committee urged the government to disband all armed community vigilance
groups as well as direct all communities to surrender their weapons to
the relevant security agencies.
