Senate raises alarm over cult activities in Rivers, fears for oil sector

Nigeria Senate on Tuesday expressed fears over continuous disruption of oil activities in Rivers State by suspected cultists, saying their horrendous activities have been over-tolerated for too long.

Senator Bala Ibn’Nallah representing Kebbi South in his contribution to the motion titled, “Frightening killings in Rivers, sponsored by Senator Andrew Uchendu, said,” Rivers State controls major oil revenues of the country.”

“I am afraid, if anything happens to the state, about 70% per cent of the country would be adversely affected.

“Government must be decisive in tackling insecurity in Rivers State. The state is quite different from others and no effort should be enough to safeguard it”, Bala insisted.

In a similar vein, Senator Jibrin Barau representing Kano North Senatorial district said several cults exist in Rivers which according to him were dangerously armed with weapons.

He argued that cultists enjoyed patronage of politicians and government, saying that the Senate must get to the root in order to proffer solutions.

“It’s a well-known fact that cultists exist in Rivers in their various groups who are armed with dangerous weapons.

“We need to know what led to the ugly scenario before proffering solutions. We must be decisive to face Rivers killings frontally so that we can tackle it once and for all. ”

“Senate must support the Inspector General of Police to specially equip the Police for this purpose”, Barau posited.

In the lead motion, Senator Uchendu Andrew representing Rivers East Senatorial district said, Rivers has been under horrendous killings in a decade.

He said the killings have assumed a dangerous dimension, where the victims were often dismembered with the disappearance of body parts.

Uchendu further recalled that unknown gunmen stormed a community in the state and killed three young men between ages 23 and 30 in which their corpses were burnt.

After contributions from Senators, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki in his ruling adopted that the Federal and State Governor should liaise with security agents towards finding a lasting solution.