Sea pirates, again, weekend, wrecked havoc at Ibeno, a coastal community in Akwa Ibom state, kidnapping eight fishermen.
Chief Williams Mkpah, who is the Local Government Chairman confirmed this to newsmen in an interview at Ibeno.
According to him, “Ibeno is prone to sea pirates’ activities. Six fishermen were kidnapped on Thursday night while another two were abducted on Friday morning in the creeks of Ibeno.
“As I am speaking sea pirates are intensifying their activities in Ibeno communities, and they want to ensure that they stop fishermen from going to sea for fishing’’.
He said that, sea pirates were demanding millions of Naira as ransom for the fishermen before releasing them, explaining that, the fishermen were forced to pay levies to the pirates before they are allowed to go for fishing business.
“The pirates have informants in our communities, who will inform them of the take off of a particular fisherman and possible routes where he will go for fishing adding that sometime, one of them was caught in Eket through a communal effort in the process of coming to collect ransom for the pirates.
The Local Government boss however, expressed reservations concerning Police handling of the matter since the man was turned in to them as nothing has been heard about the case.
“Since the man was arrested and made useful statements to the Police, as I speak now I don’t know what the Police Command in Uyo is doing about it.
“Since the suspect was caught, the issue of sea pirates increased seriously and they are now demanding for their man and because we don’t want to release their man, they have now resorted to kidnapping of every fisherman,” said Chief Mkpah.
It is recalled that, few months ago, one of the suspected sea pirates, Austine Ezekiel Agba, from Bayelsa State who used to terrorize Ibeno creeks was arrested, while being lured from Bayelsa to come and collect N3million ransom he demanded.
The kingpin, who arrived Akwa Ibom on Tuesday, June 28 and lodged at Olympus Hotel, Afaha Uqua Road, Eket, in anticipation of receiving the ransom for a kidnapped fisherman, was arrested the following day by Ukwekpo Job, Ibeno Community Security Officer (CSO) attached to the Nigerian Navy Patrol Team.
The trail to capture the pirate kingpin was due to persistent outcry by fishermen in the area, who were faced with the challenges of sea pirates noting that, the pirate kingpin was one of the most wanted and influential leaders of a pirate group that roam the water-ways hijacking fishing boats and fishermen and asking families of their victims for ransom.
But the situation is becoming more worrisome, as the affected communities are expressing dissatisfaction with the Police handling of the issue, alleging that, the pirate might be set free soon , considering the alleged exchange of money between men of the Nigerian Police in-charge of the case and some supposed sponsors of the pirates.
