Tina Amanda
The Amayanabo of Bille Kingdom, in Degema local government area of the state, king Igbikingeri Ngowari Cornelius-Herbert, says his leadership has set up a committee from the CDC, youth, women and men body of Bille to monitor illegal oil bunkering activities in the area.
The Bille Kingdom Monarch who disclosed this to newsmen in Port Harcourt maintained that his kingdom is at the forefront of the fight against kpofire activities, as it has greatly destroyed their only means of survival as fishermen, thereby causing negative economic impact.
He, however, appealed to Governor Nyesom Wike to recognize his stool having been upgraded to second class, to enable him to carry out his functions efficiently, especially in the fight to curb illegal bunkering activities in the state.
“After the Degema local government Chairman John Williams, addressed the Degema Council of Traditional Rulers on government directives to end illegal bunkering activities in the state. Without any delay, I went back to my Kingdom and made a public proclamation which I sent a copy to the Degema Council Boss.
“I told my people that we do not want to be the first offender of the government directives, made them know the implications and urged all indigenes of Bille whether home or abroad in connection to illegal bunkering to desist from such.
“We have set up a committee from the youth, women, men and Community Development Committee (CDC) Bodies of Bille to monitor activities of illegal oil bunkering activities in the area.
“We are happy that we have government backing on the fight against kpofire, because the tiger effect is much on our environment, our waterways are messed up, our mangroves dead, all the aquatic life in our waters is no more, as fishermen and women our economic sustenance has been destroyed long ago, we no longer eat fresh fish, instead we buy ice imported fish from the market.
“I’m appealing to our Governor, His Excellency Nyesom Wike to attend to our application so I can carry out my functions as a king. Right now my functions are limited, I cannot act or attend some functions because I don’t have the legal backing from the government, I am only using the traditional baton to act, as a kingdom we need the Staff of office to enable us to work well with the government.”
The Amayanabo of Bille Kingdom further appealed to the state government to partner with the Bille Kingdom on security, in order to support and direct the local security outfit on patrol on Bille major waterways.
“Our boys are living no stone unturned to see to it that they are on patrol on our major waterways every day. If the government will encourage their efforts it will go a long way to secure the territory, because the security bill is very high.
“We are calling on the government to partner with us on security, direct us on security and take the lead on security, so that the planning, execution of it will be part of government effort because there may be some areas we will take actions and government would say we have taken laws into our hands. For now, we do not operate outside our major water routes to avoid stepping over our boundaries.”
