The 32-year-old Okotubo, who is a father of three, hails from Egbenma in Unelga Local Government Area of Rivers State, disclosed this Thursday when he was paraded at the Police Headquarters.

He further revealed “that the plan to invade Omoku was hatched in Owerri, Imo State,” adding that Omoku vigilante group members were their original targets and not church worshippers.

Okotubo further explained that their decision to vent their anger on the worshippers came when they could not track down the vigilante group members.

He said vigilante members were instrumental to the arrest of Don Waney’s mother and tracing of his mansions for destruction by government.

Okotubo said that their gang leader Don Wanny had gathered them and briefed them on the night of Dec. 31, 2017 on the mission to attack and kill the residents of Omoku town, stating that 30 of them armed with over 20 AK47 Rifles crossed the river from Awara to Omoku forest and proceeded to Omoku town and opened fire on innocent citizens celebrating the new year.

Recalled that the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, had set-up special Police joint investigation team, comprising the IGP-Intelligence Response Team, the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department, Force Department of Operations and the Rivers State Police Command to immediately unravel those behind the killings and bring them to Justice.

The IGP-Intelligence Response Team attached to the Joint Police Special Investigation Team engaged some of the suspects in their hideouts in Awara Forest boundary between Imo and Rivers State, the shoot out lasting several hours resulted in the death of six of the suspects while others escaped with bullet wound injury to other locations in Rivers, Delta, Imo and Bayelsa States and the Police Teams are currently on their trail.

Working on an actionable intelligence, the IGP-Intelligence Response Team further identified Desmond Okotubo who escaped on the 3rd January, 2018 to Abuja after a shoot out with the Police Team in a location in Imo State, before he was trailed to Mpape in Abuja where he was arrested after serious resistance on the 9th January, 2018.

The post Omoku Massacre: Police parade member of Don Wanny gang appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Petered said in the statement that the speech is nothing but an attempt by Wike to massage a people already traumatised, who daily bear the marks of their bruised pride, stating that the agony of this situation is exacerbated by the knowledge that while Rivers burnt and roasted, Wike cared less.

“In his Monday speech, Wike made claims that need further interrogation to actually determine their validity, or, it was an arm of a state propaganda.

“The first that needs scrutiny is Wike’s allusion that because he visited the families of the bereaved in Omoku and pledged N200 million ransom on the alleged killers on New Year Day, the chief suspect, Johnson Onyedibia, aka Don Wani, was gunned down.

“The fact is that in a state where a sitting governor values the lives of subjects, such calamity would have warranted a visit same day. But it took Wike days and that was after he had been informed that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, was sending the Interior Minister to visit Omoku. So, in the face of this even Wike’s visit to Omoku belies sincere grief for the families.

“As always, rather than own up to obvious failure, Gov. Wike made an unsubstantiated allegation against an unnamed “former governor and his ilk”, claiming they had interfered with the state government’s amnesty programme. Lies, no matter how long told, will never cover the truth which in this instance is that Wike’s Amnesty programme was not planned to end insecurity in Rivers State but to offer state cover to designated criminals for purposes known to their patrons.

“In his warped understanding of governance, Wike believes that offering financial baits would turn his page of complicity in this whole saga around. Rivers people cannot be fooled by this display of ineptitude. Wike’s offer of another tranche of cash on criminals is no remediation for the pains, loss and agony caused families.

“Leadership is humane. This is an attribute grossly lacking in the man who oversees the once-sought-after Rivers State. How can Wike face families whose breadwinners and loved ones were gruesomely murdered by the criminals to tell them that oil companies, other politicians outside his fold, Federal security agencies were liable for the murder of their loved ones? How can Wike stand against good conscience and the families of the 23 massacred on New Year’s Eve in Omoku, to absolve himself of their death being the state Chief Security Officer of the state?

“Has Wike bothered to empathize with Egbeda community for the gruesome murder of her mothers, father, sons and daughters a few days back? The situation in Andoni is no less worrisome. Can Wike in good conscience, absolve himself in the bloodbath that has turned the state into “Rivers of Blood”? Good conscience would not absolve the guilty.

“Would he as the Chief Security Officer of the state, with unhindered access to daily security statistics, feign ignorance of black spots and flashpoints in the state he was expected to be governor?

“Wike cannot deny that there existed a functional security architecture the previous Administration had instituted that secured the state and made it inhabitable. Being a key player in that Administration, at least, in its early days, offered him huge access into that structure. But Wike, rather than strengthen it, blew all away in his attempt to erase records of his predecessors. In the face of this, if anybody played bet with the lives of Rivers people, it was Wike.

“Wike’s speech was a warped absolution that presented those persons named as the reason the state had collapsed right in his hands. Nothing can be farther from the truth than that.

“The governor had a lot of grace period to have moved to save the several lives of innocent, law-abiding Rivers people and residents lost to the carnage and orgy of bloodletting imposed on Rivers State by criminals and their sponsors.

“What Wike has done, therefore, amounts to submitting to an admittance that he reneged on his oath of office, and so, had failed Rivers people. If not, how could it take Wike over 30 months to admit in public that the real governors of Rivers State were criminals?

Rivers State is already flat. The statistics say so. In its recent listing, a verified agency listed the state as the most miserable state to live in Nigeria at 79.37% rate. With unemployment and underemployment rate at 61.4, the highest in the country, and inflation at 18.01%, the state is already broken.

“The best that Wike can do for the state at the moment, is to end this blame-game and sincerely, for the sake of the state, and for the memory of those whose lives had been brutally ended due to the state’s siddon-look, work with the Federal Government to end this tragedy,” Peterside said.

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Wike made the allegation when the Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau (Rtd) paid him a courtesy call in Port Harcourt.

The governor said that the state government was ready to partner with the Federal Government to tackle the security challenges in the state.

He stated that the security agencies in the state had knowledge of the cult kingpins terrorizing flashpoints in the state.

“The security agencies have the profiles of all cult kingpins in different parts of the state and they know their locations, there is no wisdom in the politicization of security.

“Insecurity can affect anybody, you can never know the next victim of insecurity,’’ the governor stated.

Wike called on the security agencies and the Federal Government to deploy personnel to cult flashpoints in the state to stop repeated attacks by cultists.

“In every system, the security agencies know the flashpoints, here we requested for the strengthening of security around these flashpoints, especially areas with high prevalence of cultists.

“I expect that security would be beefed up in these places, I ask this question, Is there an orchestrated plan to tag Rivers State unsafe?

“Is the situation above the security agencies, despite the information we have made available to them?” the governor asked.

He accused oil multinationals for the escalation of cultism in some communities, adding that the multinationals had encouraged cultism through the award of surveillance contracts to cultists.

Wike lamented that having been funded by multinationals, cultists were able to purchase sophisticated weapons with which they caused mayhem on communities and law-abiding citizens.

He disclosed that the State Government had made several requests to the Inspector-General of Police to deploy special squads to tackle cultism and kidnapping in Rivers.

The governor stated that the Inspector-General of Police had failed to deploy special squads to the state, despite several requests by the State government.

“The peculiar nature of Rivers State requires peculiar intervention, before now, I have been shouting that we need support to fight crime, I have made this complaint severally,” he said.

Wike berated politicians who had wanted to adopt cult-related killings to play politics by making false allegations against the state.

Earlier, retired Lt.-Gen. Danbazzau noted that he was in the State at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari to assess the security situation.

The Minister on behalf of the President, condoled the government and the people of the State over the killings at Omoku.

“Rivers State is important to the country, particularly when it comes to the issue of the nation’s economy.

“It is very important that the Federal Government collaborates with the state to see how any security gap can be closed for adequate protection of lives and property,” the Minister added.

The post Gov. Wike raises alarm over plot to make Rivers unsafe appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

The President said the visit was to commiserate with the government and people of the state over the killings and called for partnership between the Federal and Rivers State Governments to tackle security challenges in the state, which he said is important to the nation’s economy.

He promised that the federal government would partner with the government to ensure adequate security of the state, saying: “Rivers State is important to the country, particularly when it comes to the issue of the economy. It is very important that the federal government partners with the state to see how any security gaps can be closed for adequate protection of lives and property.”

While speaking with Dambazzau at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Governor Nyesom Wike alleged an orchestrated plot to create the impression that the state is unsafe through the promotion of targeted cult killings.

Wike said the security agencies in the state know the cult kingpins terrorising flashpoints in the state, adding: “The Security agencies have the profiles of all cult kingpins in different parts of the state and they know their locations.

“There is no wisdom in the politicisation of security. Insecurity can affect anybody, as you can never know the next victim.”He urged the security agencies and the federal government to deploy personnel to cult flashpoints in the state to forestall repeated attacks by cultists.

“In every system, the security agencies know the flashpoints. Here, we requested for the strengthening of security around these flashpoints, especially areas with high prevalence of cultists. I expected that security would be beefed up in these places.

“I ask this question: Is there an orchestrated plan to tag Rivers State as unsafe? Is the situation above the security agencies, despite the information we have made available to them?” The governor also blamed oil multinationals, who award surveillance contracts to cultists, for the explosion of cultism in some communities.

He said equipped with funds from multinationals, cultists procure sophisticated weapons with which they terrorise communities and law-abiding persons.

Wike said that the state government has made several requests to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for the deployment of special squads to tackle cultism and kidnapping, but the IGP has failed to grant the request, saying: “The peculiar nature of Rivers State requires peculiar intervention. Before now, I have been shouting that we need support to fight crime. I have made this complaint severally.”

The governor berated politicians who want to use the cult-related killings to play politics and make false allegations against the state.

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