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Joe Effiong, Uyo
Fishermen in Akwa Ibom have commended the combined efforts of the ex-militants and a team of amphibious mobile police squad from the office of the Inspector-General of Police, who have worked together to reduce frequent attacks by sea pirates.
The chairman of Mbo Indigenous Fishers Association, Mr Offong Ettekamba, told journalists at Rnwang, Mbo LGA of the state, that there was remarkable peace in the sea within the past two weeks since the amphibious police and some ex-militant leaders took over the surveillance of the waterways.
Mr Ettekamba, however, appealed to the state government as a matter of necessity, to maintain the current security measures instituted by the state Ministry of Agriculture and Women Development, which contracted Creek & Estuary Limited to partner the state government in the security of the maritime industry.
He commended the Commissioner for Agriculture and Women Development, Mrs Gloria Edet, for the intervention and maintained that with the involvement of ex-militants in the security of the waterways, sea pirates would find it difficult to operate in the state.
Collaborating the opinion of the fishermen, the chairman, ex-militants leaders forum, “General” Kingsley Umoh Bassey, aka 007, said that those who operate in Akwa Ibom waterways as sea pirates were from other states of the Niger Delta region who find it difficult to operate in their state of origin because of the involvement of ex-militants in the surveillance of the water ways.
He also appealed to the state government to utilise the benefits of the Federal government amnesty programme by fully involving ex-militants who were familiar with the creeks in the security operations of the maritime industry in synergy with conversational security agencies.
On his part, the CEO of Creek & Estuary Limited, Effiong Okon Etim, said that the water ways was now safe for fishermen as the involvement of ex-militants in surveillance would put a permanent stop to the rampant criminality of sea pirates in the state.
Etim thanked the people of the coastal area of the State for their support in the course of the duty of the combined team of the amphibious police force and ex-militants leaders and averred that henceforth, sea piracy would be a thing of the past if the state government would continue in its resolve to rid the waterways of criminality.
