Port Harcourt — There have been good
neighbours for decades, but the age-long bond is being tested by
disputed oil wells at their common borders.Unless there is a middle ground at the end of the meeting called by
President Goodluck Jonathan to broker peace in the on-going crisis
between Rivers and Bayelsa States over the disputed oil wells, the
situation may degenerate into anarchy, concerned indigenes of the two
sister states feared.
Weekly Trust learnt that youths from the two feuding states are
already moblising for confrontation and only consensus from the outcome
of yesterday's meeting between the President and the Rivers State
Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as well as his Bayelsa State counterpart,
Seriake Dickson, will calm the fraying nerves.
Within the week, a paramount ruler from Nembe local government area
of Bayelsa State has raised an alarm over the possibility of the
face-off degenerating into a bloodletting, while calling on the Federal
Government to immediately step in.
Worried by the turn the battle for the oil wells has taken, Jonathan
has arranged for mediation between the two states through their chief
executives. The meeting, Weekly Trust learnt took place at the Aso Rock
Vila yesterday.
The mediation is coming on the heels of an intervention into the
lingering controversy over ownership of some blocks between Enugu,
Anambra and Kogi states last Wednesday.As if waiting for the President to step into the Enugu, Anambra and
Kogi imbroglio, chiefs and community leaders from Kalabari Kingdom,
Rivers State took to the streets of Port Harcourt, the same day to
protest over what they called a calculated plans by the Bayelsa State
government to cede ten oil bearing communities in Rivers State to
President Jonathan's home state.
Traditional rulers and elite of
Kalabari Kingdom decked in their traditional etibo regalia matched from
Isaac Boro Park to government house where they presented a protest
letter to the Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru.
The Amayanagbo of Abonnema, Israel Bob-Manuel who spoke on behalf of
the protesters said prior to the present crisis, Rivers and Bayelsa
States had enjoyed a robust relationship.
He said "the plank of our
petition is essentially to protest against the malicious , myopic and
selfish interest of certain well placed officials to willfully balkanize
and excise virtually all the oil and gas bearing communities of
Kalabari Kingdom which include but not limited to Kula, Soku, Elem
Sangama, Idama and Abissa and all their fishing settlements which from
time immemorial have been in Kalabari communities in Rivers state with
which they share common linguistic, cultural and ancestral shrines and
also consanguinity."
