Bonny youths threaten to evict Andoni people over Finima killings

Youths in Bonny Local Council of Rivers State have threatened to evict the Andoni people in Finima Fishing Ports if Andoni elders fail to advise their youths to refrain from further attacks and killing of Bonny people.

Leader of Bonny Youths Federation, Simeon Wilcox, said this yesterday in Port Harcourt while responding to last week’s attack, in which five Andoni people dead, including a pregnant woman.

His words: “We cannot have tenants who will kill us. We want to assist the Andoni people, but if the attacks and killings continue and their elders and chiefs do not call their youths to order, we will not fold our hands and watch them continue their violence.

“If they keep terrorising us and the authorities fail to act, we would have no option than to evict them from our land. If we hated them, we wouldn’t have accommodated them all these years.

“If they push us to a level where we can no longer tolerate, we will ask them to leave our land. Enough is enough!”He added that Finima had been host to the Ilaje, Hausa and other groups, saying it was regrettable that cultism, piracy, and terrorism were beginning to creep into Bonny, which had been adjudged as the most peaceful community in Rivers.

“And it is on record that in all the cases, security operatives have apprehended the criminal elements and all were found to be Andoni people or those they harbour in our land,” he said.

Wilcox pointed out that Finima, which plays host to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), has been experiencing recurring criminality even in the presence of security operatives in Bonny.

“We have often said that government is only interested in securing oil assets in Bonny and hardly cares about the lives of our people who own the land. “We have a large army settlement in Bonny, Navy has a base there, DSS, civil defence corps and other paramilitary agencies are also there, yet our people are being killed and robbed everyday,” he stated. He, however, urged Governor Nyesom Wike to use the newly established Neighborhood Watch Corps, involving the local people to police Bonny to ensure that peace returns to the area.