Residents, Saturday, carpeted the police in Bayelsa State, following widespread armed robberies, assassinations and killings in various parts of Yenagoa, the state capital.
The residents accused the police command of failing to justify their presence in the state and the huge investments the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, said he had made on security.
They wondered why crime rates had increased in the state a few weeks after the state government equipped the state security outfit, Operation Doo-Akpo with many patrol vans.
Cultists, armed robbers and hired assassins are having a field day killing, maiming and stealing at will.
Within a month, the state Chairman of Cattle Breeders Association (CBA), Alhaji Jubril Abdulkarim and three of his employees were assassinated in Yenagoa.
A former Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Mr. Ayakeme Masa, was murdered in his house in cold blood by unidentified gunmen.
A female reporter with the African Independent Television (AIT), Owei Patience, iOS still bathing for her life in a Government House Hospital, Yenagoa, after she was robbed and shot at close range by unknown persons.
The aggrieved residents further decried nefarious activities of cultists, who have formed the habit of trooping to the streets to rob, shoot and kill helpless people.
Their evil activities led to the killing of a 30-year-old man identified as Ifiemie and shooting of a policeman in mufti in Ekeki area of Yenagoa on Wednesday.
They also lamented constant attacks on travelers along the waterways by pirates, which recently led to the brutal killing of Asuku, a former Chairman of the Maritime Workers’ Union (MWU), Akassa unit.
A resident, Ayemi Pat, reeled out some of the incidents of criminality and appealed to security agencies especially the police to arrest the ugly trend.
He said: “About five weeks, some yet-to-be-identified gunmen in broad daylight shot and almost killed Ebitmi Boss, a.k.a Timiya at the gate of his house at Biogbolo Yenagoa.
“Only recently armed robbers successfully robbed one miss Owei of AIT, assigned to Government House after shooting her. She would have died but for the timely assistance of some good spirited Nigerians who rushed her to the hospital.
“No day passes without one incident of robbery or assassination in Yenagoa for the past three or four months. This is not palatable considering the size of Yenagoa, and something urgent must be done to nip this ugly situation in the bud. Yenagoa, the State capital, is becoming too scary to live in”.
Also a youth leader and activist, Wisdom Ikuli, told security agencies to do their job and stop what he described as worsening security situation in Yenagoa.
He asked them to return the state to the security it enjoyed during the first term in office of Dickson.
He said: “The waterways in Bayelsa State especially Southern Ijaw and Brass Local Government Areas have become impassable.
“They are now ‘No- Go-Areas’. There is hardly a week that passes without incidents of sea piracy and murder of innocent, defenseless poor passengers and local traders.
“Bayelsa State especially Yenagoa Metropolis is fast becoming a dead zone. The daily cases of assassinations and deaths resulting from armed robbery is alarming and becoming too worrisome”.
Also, the Head of News, Rhythm FM, Oyins Engrebido, lamented how armed robbers almost killed the Head of Station, Silverbird Rhythm 94.7, Mr. Peter on Thursday.
He said: “Three Armed robbers with pump action and revolver pistol just robbed the Head of Station Silverbird Rhythm 94.7 Yenagoa Mr. Peter at the NNPC filling station by Redeem church.
“They robbed him of his valuables at the presence of other road users and threatened to shoot him. What’s happening in Bayelsa?”
Another resident, Akik Olali, said: “In this Yuletide season, most people are now very afraid of going to the bank for fear of being trailed by these armed rubbers.
“Everywhere is just dry,I mean no sign of Christmas anywhere, yet these boys won’t allow people to enjoy the little they have. I urge the security agencies to up their game”.
But the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Asuquo Amba, has within two months paraded hundreds of suspected criminals and assorted rifles recovered from them.
The police boss blamed rising crimes in the state on the insatiable quest for money during the Yuletide.
He further said the the recent surge was caused by the proliferation of small arms lamenting that people were in possession of illegal weapons.
He said: “As a matter of fact, I agreed with you that there is a rise in crime. One it could be as a result of the greed of the Yuletide but we have been planning all through the year, not only in this period.
‘I can authoritatively tell you that there are a lot of small weapons with people and the people have wrong perception about cultism.
” The state government is trying to come out with a policy where it could address issues relating to cultism, to encourage people to denounce cultism and encourage people to lay down their weapons.
“Cultisms is becoming a thing of pride for people to get themselves involved and you also know that there is thin line between cultism and armed robbery is very close. Most of these cases are nothing but revenge missions, especially for the younger one.
“You create a problem somewhere and other people come out to revenge. We have been trying to sensitize the people, we had made a sizeable recovery of arms and by Monday l will showcase the numbers of arms we had recovered from individuals and groups but unfortunately there is a slow pace in prosecution but thank God the governor and the judiciary have seen the need to fast-track their prosecutions.
“The state government is trying to come out with a policy where it could address issues relating to cultism, to encourage people to denounce cultism and encourage people to lay down their weapons”.
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