LAGOS OCTOBER 30TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The people of Kula oceanic community in Akuku Kingdom of Rivers State said on Sunday that they had seized Ibeto crude oil vessel involved in the crushing of 15 youths and death of seven.
This is as the last two dead bodies of the youths that were crushed by a towing rope were recovered.
The vessel is named Anambra Basin FSO, belonging to Max Shipping Services Limited, but hired out to Penal Technologies Limited to move crude oil from the NNPC/Belema oil field to Bonny terminal for export.
The hijack of the vessel has brought about insinuations and discussions on the possibility of militancy return to the Niger Delta, calling on both the Federal and Rivers State Governments to address the issue.
Meanwhile, a statement from the media team of the Kula Community, said they also seized two tugboats, named Delta Runner and Laura-V, involved in the incident, while investigation into the matter is ongoing.
“The two captains of the tugboats have also been reportedly arrested by the Police for investigation”, the statement added.
No statement has come from Max Shipping or Ibeto to confirm the seizing of the vessel, but Ibeta has continued to say it is not directly involved in the crisis.
The Kula community said they were still negotiating terms of exit of the vessel when news came that the vessel had begun moving out.
Their youths mobilised and moved to stop it from pulling out when the tragedy occurred during an encounter.
Eight persons were said to be rescued alive while bodies of the rest seven have continued to appear between Wednesday last week and Saturday.
Now, bodies of the two remaining victims of Tuesday’s boat mishap at Robertkiri, were recovered along the Kula waterways, according to the statement.
The statement said the bodies were recovered on Saturday, four days after the incident which occurred last week Tuesday.
They were identified as Davies Opiri, Secretary of the Kula Community Development Committee (CDC), and David Sukubo, younger brother of the President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria.
The bodies were found along the creeks and mangroves within the Robertkiri axis by the search and rescue team, comprising community leaders, divers, local vigilantes and fishermen, the statement added.
The corpses were later deposited at a morgue in Port Harcourt after formal identification by the relatives at the Abonnema Divisional Police Headquarters.
The statement maintained that the 15 persons on board were reportedly drowned when the Ibeto Group was pulling out its 200,000-capacity crude oil vessel named from the Kula coastal waters, having concluded operations in the area amid alleged unresolved issues with the host communities.
Seven persons lost their lives in the incident, while eight were rescued alive, the community confirmed.
Speaking shortly after the recovery of the last two bodies, Sukubo Sara-Igbe Sukubo, the leader of the search and rescue team, who is a prominent indigene of Kula, claimed that the incident was not a boat mishap as widely reported, “But a deliberate act of murder allegedly caused by the Ibeto Group.”
He alleged that before the incident, the community had been threatened should they attempt to block the waterways to prevent the company from pulling out its vessel from the area.
The youth leader boldly mentioned the name of the company they have hold responsible. “They have turned women to widows and children to orphans,” he said.
Sukubo Sara-Igbe also threatened to mobilise a mass protest next week with the remains of the victims to the residence and business premises of the Ibeto Group, including its subsidiaries, to demand immediate government action against the owner of the company over the death of the victims.
“I have declared a 21-day protest starting next week with 51,000 youths and caskets bearing the remains of the victims.
“We demand justice for the families of the victims and the affected communities.”
The Rivers State Government had last week appealed to the community to stay calm and await government action, but more has been heard from the government. Environmental activists have warned that the Kula youth may take over the initiative in the absence of any strong point of action by the state or federal government.
BusinessDay
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