Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has condemned, in very strong terms, the recent unprovoked attack and killing of four security personnel in Nembe Creek and three Naval personnel in Foropa community in Nembe and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas of the state and other parts of the Niger Delta region.
According to him, such unwarranted attacks on the nation’s security personnel were putting the state and the region in bad light.
As part of the steps to check the activities of militants, the unwholesome trend and improve the security situation in the State, he said community leaders, elders and other stakeholders would be summoned to a meeting at a date to be announced later.
Dickson, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Daniel Iworiso-Markson, personally expressed regret over the unfortunate incident.
He, therefore, called on the perpetrators of the dastardly killings and their collaborators to stop it with immediate effect.
“Terrorism does not favour peace, neither can democracy express itself through violence,” Dickson emphasised.
The governor’s condemnation came on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s order on the military to go on a manhunt for the perpetrators and clamp down all security threats in the Niger Delta region.
Dickson stated that the killings were also putting the innocent ones in the state and the Niger Delta region in danger.
While warning that the government of Bayelsa State does not want a replay of the Odi massacre in 1999, during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, where only the innocent people suffered the brunt of the military invasion, the governor called on community leaders and other stakeholders to check the activities of youths in their domains.
Dickson, however, said that the government is already working in concert with security agents to bring the culprits to book and forestall any future occurrences.
