Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

The Rivers State chairman of Civil Liberty Organisation, CLO, Sotonye George has faulted the move by the Police hierarchy to deploy homicide police personnel to Rivers State to investigate the various killings in the state.

Sotonye George told journalists that the move will not be the answer to the ongoing killings in the state. George said no positive result has been gotten from such investigation over the past years.

He called for a stakeholders meeting to discuss the causes of the problem. George further said with the deployment of the homicide personnel, the economy of Rivers State will be deeply affected.

The stance of the Rivers CLO against the directive of the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, that the Homicide detectives from Police Headquarters should take over the investigation of the killings in some parts of Rivers State is shocking to many observers.

In his own reaction, the former Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives, Chibudum Nwuche, has attributed the ceaseless killings in Ahoada East and Ahoada West local Government area for alleged negligence and compromise with criminal gangs. He called on the Police boss to redeploy all Police officers in Ahoada East and Ahoada West.

He alleged that the Police Officers in the the two local government areas look the other way as hoodlums turn the area into a killing field.

The early Sunday morning slaughtering and beheading of about 11 persons before setting them on fire in separate attacks in two communities of Ula-Upata and Edeoha Ahoada East local government area are eliciting angry reactions.

Unknown gunmen had invaded Ula-Upata and Edeoha communities in the early hours of Sunday, opened fire on their victims, beheaded them and set their body ablaze.

Reacting to the incident, a public affair commentator, Kennedy Friday, lamented: “They were killed and beheaded in Ula-Upata community in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State. After that, their corpses were set ablaze!

“In this 21st Century, this bestiality happens everyday in parts of Rivers State almost unchallenged. Insecurity is at its most rampaging level. Oh God, what is happening to Rivers State? We have this very dire challenge and people look the other way and pretend that all is well. This barbarity happens everyday in one part of the state or the other. When will these killings stop?”

He lambasted the Chairman of CLO in the State, Sotonye George for criticising the directive of the IGP to deploy Homicides to the state as disappointing and shocking.

Kennedy Friday and other people interviewed supported the IGP but wondered whose interest CLO is working for in the state.

Various sources claimed the Sunday attack was caused by a rival cult group that got a hint that survivors of previous cult battle were being treated by a herbalist who specializes in extracting bullets from victims of gun attack in his house. The invaders stormed the house, shot the occupants dead, beheaded the carried their for public display and set the headless bodies ablaze.

The lawmaker representing Ahoada East Constituency Two in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Edison Ehie Ogerenye, has condemned the killing and beheading of four people in Ula-Upata and Edeoha communities of Ahoada East local government on Sunday.

Ogerenye, at a press briefing in Port-Harcourt, called on the security agencies to fish out the killers and bring them to justice.

Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, however said only four persons were killed by the yet to be identified gunmen.

The Rivers State Commissioner of Police Musa Kimo also told journalists that policemen have been deployed to the area to boost security there.

Musa Kimo advised residents of the communities to always give timely information when strange persons are found in their environment.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police disclosed that a team of the homicide police from Abuja have been deployed to the state to commence investigation on the killings

Arase said he had given the Rivers Police Commissioner a marching order to go after the criminals who have been wasting the lives of human beings in the state no matter how highly placed.

He vowed that the Police will not allow those who want to turn Rivers to Hobbesian state of nature where might is right.

“I have told the Commissioner of Police that he must go after them. We will not allow hoodlums to overwhelm the country”.

He further reiterated the resolve of the federal government to eradicate all forms of criminality in the country

Arase was in Port Harcourt to launch a new uniform for spy police team attached to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC.