By Emem Idio

WILBERFORCE ISLAND- AMASSOMA community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, is one of the biggest settlements in the state, which could be accessed through land and water.

•Gov Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa

It was also one of the most peaceful rural settlements in the council area before the establishment of the Niger Delta University in 2000 by the first civilian governor of the state, late Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, an indigene of Amassoma.

Population explosion occasioned by the influx of students, workers and business people has deprived the hitherto rural settlement its innocence.

Sadly, the community known for its famous Amassoma Seigbein festival has been repeatedly violated by bandits and cultists.

No one is in doubt that the university is gradually copying notorious characteristics associated with many university campuses and host communities in the country.

Events of the last few months in the community have raised serious security challenges for the community. In what is apparently one of the most violent protests in the history of the 16 years old institution, some students of the Faculty of Engineering having academic problem sometime in February, went berserk, destroying facilities of the institution over an academic regulation of the faculty that did not go down well with them

Few weeks later, armed men attacked the Amassoma Police Division and overwhelmed the policemen and also attacked a new generation bank in the area where they attempted to cart away an Automated Teller Machine, ATM, after using explosives suspected to be dynamite to blow up the wall but were repelled by security operatives.

Since then it has been stories of cult killings, rape, robbery, and armed attacks on students and residents of the community, who now live in perpetual fear.

In a chat with Niger Delta Voice, students and youth leaders in the community called for concerted efforts and synergy between the state government, community leaders, and the institution to tackle the ugly menace.

President of the National Union of Bayelsa State Students, NUBSS, NDU chapter Ipogi Daniel, decried the precarious security situation in the university community, stressing that students were the worst hit and called for adequate security for the students’ community in Amassoma.

He said: “Most of the students are now living in fear due to attacks on daily basis in the community. We, the students are not comfortable with the security situation of things in Amassoma, and we are begging the state government to do something because NDU is the state owned university.

“It is pathetic for parents to toil and send their children to school only to learn that they have been killed while in school

“We want the institution, community and government to collaborate and restore security to the university community because students’ lives are no longer safe in Amassoma community.”

Caretaker Committee Chairman of Students Union Government, SUG, of NDU, Ibo Ekiye, also called on the community leaders to support the university authority efforts in providing security for the area.

The student leader, who queried the community efforts in collaborating with other stakeholders to provide security insisted that the community is not doing enough to tackle the insecurity in the community.

Insecurity in the community

“The community is supposed to have an internal community policing in form of a vigilante. It should be a priority of the community leaders to provide a complementary security mechanism to protect lives and properties,” he asserted.

Youth President of Amassoma City, Mr. Tamunoakuno Baitcarpet blamed the lack of electricity supply as one of the main causes of criminality in the area and called for the restoration of power to the area.

He also noted that the community is making efforts to tackle the insecurity with a proactive vigilante to complement the conventional security.

“The problem of electricity, I believe, has also contributed to the insecurity in the community. If there is light, the insecurity will greatly reduce because evil mostly thrives in darkness,” he said.

Spokesperson of the Bayelsa State Police Command, Asinim Butswat, said the police are deploying more men to the area in view of the fact that as a community with a higher institution it has more active youths which calls for concern.