The Nigerian government appears to be gaining dominance over Boko Haram in Borno, Northeast Nigeria. However, another flash point of senseless violence that requires urgent attention, federal government intervention and perhaps international condemnation.
Rivers state, a major city in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, is fast becoming one of the most dangerous places to live and work in Nigeria after Boko Haram’s Sambisa Forest. Port Harcourt, the state capital, a key business unit in Nigeria’s economic and commercial mapping can best be described as a theater of gruesome bloodletting where beheading and gory killings take place everyday.
While the current federal government controlling the Police, military and intelligence forces has been silence at the glaring culture of politically-motivated killings, kidnapping, arson and organised crimes, we (PageOne) think it is high time, a local voice signal to a global audience for urgent attention.
The body count and reported missing persons are countless. There is no official data tracking all the cases of cold-blooded murder, reported and unreported. Before the general elections that crowned Nyesom Wike, the current Governor of the state, more than 300 people police, soldiers and naval agents were killed across the city of Port Harcourt according to the National Human Rights Commission. After the elections, the rate of killings have skyrocketed and could have increased by at least 50% of NHRC’s data.
Last Saturday, gory killings and decapitations characterised the state and federal parliamentary re-run elections. Last attempts at conducting the polling exercises led to the deaths of many innocent lives by criminal gangs allegedly sponsored by politicians across the opposition and ruling party in the state.
We are committed to bringing the world’s attention to these barbaric acts going on in Rivers state. To make this possible, we have created the hash tag #RiversOfViolence. We will in the state on a daily basis track all related happenings, talk to locals, victims and individuals to properly document crimes against humanity currently perpetrated in the state.
The international community can then pressure the Nigerian federal government to wake up to its responsibilities of saving lives and putting a reign on political thugs, criminal gangs and politicians, who have turned the state to #RiversOfViolence.
