Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Palpable tension on Monday enveloped Rundele and Rumuekpe communities in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, following alleged siege by operatives of the Nigerian Army, over missing riffles and military uniforms in the area.
Our correspondent gathered that trouble began during the weekend when four soldiers attached to Shell facilities in the area, went to an illegal oil refining site inside a forest which serves as a boundary between Rumuekpe and Rundele communities, to collect royalties from operators of the illegal refinery.
A source privy to the incident said the soldiers on arriving at the site began harassing the illegal oil refiners for money as their share of the business, while those who refused to comply had their products impounded and loaded into the vans which the soldiers came with.
As a result, one of the artisanal refiners who happens to be the leader of the local vigilante group in the area known as RUSPAC, was punished by the soldiers for refusing to load the seized illegally refined petroleum products into their waiting vehicle, the source who spoke on anonymity revealed.
“The news of the punishment of the RUSPAC leader quickly went out through phone calls and his colleagues mobilized and stormed the site to rescue their leader, shooting their guns sporadically, overpowered the soldiers who ran away leaving two of their colleagues who were held from behind and their guns and uniforms seized.
“The two soldiers were beaten and later freed without their guns returned to them. Thus, they went back, reinforced and stormed the Rumuekpe community at dawn where they suspected that some of the youths involved hail from, to ransack, arrests, chase and arrest wives of suspected youths and burning houses with many houses so far burnt down with a view of recovering their arms, with no one able to enter or exit the community except through bushes.”
A resident of Rumuekpe community Uchendu Ruskin, who spoke to our corrspondent on the phone, wondered why the soldiers would come to Rumuekpe community to burn houses, arrest people and hold the community hostage over an incident that happened at an artisanal refinery in Rundele community.
“We are yet to recover from the last incident of explosion in Rumuekpe community which killed over 100 people and they reported just less than 20. It was the Army that set that fire on the pit where people were scooping crude oil because the people refused to settle them. This is the situation in our community today and we want the Army to leave us alone and go to Ndele where their men were beaten and where they have their pots, to look for their guns. Army men have big pots that they used in refining crude oil in Ndele.”
Confirming the development, the Nyeweli Rundele, HRH Damian Ejiowhor, confirmed that there is tension in the community.
The monarch said he was told soldiers and RUSPAC (vigilante) commander had confrontation yesterday, “the soldiers came over seized riffles and uniforms.”
Similarly, the Chairman of Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, Barr. Chidi Lloyd, reacting to the development, accused military and Civil Defence operatives of aiding the activities of oil thieves, pipeline vandals and illegal oil refiners in the area.
