Continues from last edition on “Kokori ‘invasion’: How most wanted kidnapper, Kelvin, breached security”

BUT we give them all the assistance to make the job easy for them. So as far as I am concerned, the government has done its part, if anything that is lacking, it is certainly not or should not be attributed to the inability of the state government.

No governor has the right to call out troops, even when you go to security council and take decisions, most or some of these decisions are still subject to the ratification of the commanders and various security chiefs of these agencies.

Kelvin’s LIMUP gang…waiting for amnesty

The Commissioner of Police in DeltaState may decide to call his Inspector General of Police before he implements whatever we have agreed, the army man may call the Chief of Army Staff and the Department of State Service, DSS, may also call his or her Director General. So that is the way it goes, there are times that the governors are frustrated because they are in a helpless situation, they may know what to do, but they do not have the powers to do it and that is why you see some states calling for state police.

Generally, what do you say of the security situation in the state?

Apart from the Kokori threat, you will agree with me that generally, the insecurity situation in the state has been brought to the barest minimum; we have been able to provide logistics to the various security agencies.

Land security

I must be thankful to the Chief of Army Staff, who has given approval for his men to also be on the road to assist the police, and this has gone wonderfully well in the state. If you round, around the Warri, Ughelli, Sapele, Patani axis, soldiers, air force and even the navy people, they have all come into land security because we found ourselves in a situation where we cannot say, air force, wait until there is a problem on air or navy, wait until there is problem on water.

All of them have to join hands to maintain peace. Remember the incident in which they shot the national vice chairman of PDP, Dr. Stephen Oru, and same day, they attempted to kill a member of the National Assembly, Hon Ndudi Elumelu, where he lost some of his political details.

It was after that incident that government took a decision to encourage all of them to come into streets. In addition, our House of Assembly also made it easy for the executive arm by passing a law, which makes it compulsory that if a kidnap victim is detained, held or kept hostage in a particular home, that home should be brought down.

I think with these measures, the situation calmed down in this state. But like you said, until this threat from Kelvin, we were on top of the situation, but we also know that he has an outfit that is beyond the state. His group terrorizes some other states.

In view of the 60-day ultimatum, many people want the appropriate organs of government to act because whatever affects the Federal Government in Delta also affects the state and its people?

Well, I just believe that security agencies know what to do, I am not a security man, I live that to them. Among other issues, Kelvin also complained about unemployment. Let me ask, is it when the state is made insecure for investors to come in that the issue of unemployment will be addressed, there is nowhere in the world where government employs all of its citizens, what happens is that government provides the atmosphere for investors to come in, it is the private sector that take up the idle hands in the society, not government. He had been kidnapping people, kidnapping expatriates, who come here for road construction because we are saying there is no development.

Now, we bring in experts to come and construct roads, you go and kidnap them, so how do you relate it. So you see, at times I a bit pained when some of us want to relate criminality issues with matters of development. As far as I am concerned, there is relationship at all. And if you talk of what are we doing, all the measures the government is taking today are towards generating employment.

Presently, there is a big project that is coming up in the creeks, that project is going to off between 5000 to 10,000  persons off  the street. If the Itsekiri in the area now decide to begin to kidnap the expatriates doing the project, how will that provide job for them  because when we say it is going to be in the creek, it is not meant for only those people in the creek.

They do not even have the number, when the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, Warri, was booming in the 70s, some of us were going there to do things, it was not meant for only people in Warri, Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo alone. So government is already taking a lot of steps, you are aware of the huge development programme that the government has put in place, the sea ports are being developed, the school projects, the roads, all these are visible things that government is doing. The InternationalAirport in Asaba is near completion and about 2,000 persons will be engaged there at the end of the day, are they going to be from my village- are they not Deltans.

Kelvin asked for amnesty, what is your opinion?

Well, the issue of amnesty is a matter before the federal government, if the federal government says amnesty is meant for people who are kidnapping and committing robbery, they grant him amnesty, but I am not in the position to decide who is given amnesty.

But from what we see of Kelvin, he is shifting from criminality to agitation for his people?

Like I said, there is a difference between somebody who came out from Day 1, Ken Saro Wiwa and others in the forefront of liberation struggle.  They never went out killing people, robbing and destroying lives. So, there are two different things and it is an area when I want to leave entirely to the security agencies to deal with. And I believe the federal government has the capacity to address the issues that he had raised.

If they feel there is merit in what he is doing and want to invite him over for discussion, all well, nobody is going to stop them, but I am the one that will decide for them how to handle it. Specifically, the state government cannot address his request for amnesty.