Help govt fight crude oil theft, Fubara tasks Rivers monarchs

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has said that it is the duty of everybody, especially traditional rulers, to join efforts with the government to ensure that there is stability and unfettered progress of Nigeria.

He has also advised traditional rulers to take charge of their domains and ensure that they make life difficult for ill-guided youths involved in acts of economic sabotage in their various communities.

Fubara gave the charge while declaring open the 117th/118th Combined Quarterly General Meeting of Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers at their Secretariat in Port Harcourt on Monday.

This was contained in a statement issued by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, and sent to newsmen.

The governor maintained that it should be the concern of everybody to support and see Nigeria progress as a stable country while advancing economically, adding that this is possible only when there is high production of crude oil, as the mainstay of the national economy.

The governor said, “I want to see a different society from this hour. The Federal Government is doing everything to see that our crude oil production level increases. But every day, we are having issues of illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalisation and all the associated problems.

“All these people that are carrying out these evil acts, they’re not coming from the moon, they live in our communities, we know them. I am charging this council, as a first step, to take charge of your communities.

“If there is any information that you need to share with us, share with us. The overall, we need our country to progress. We need our country to be stable. We need our country to grow economically. It is through only one means: our oil production.”

The governor insisted: “We are charging you, to please go back and take charge of your communities. I assure you of our support. If there is anything that we need to do, if it means the government sending you some little support financially to create your own vigilante to help, we will do it.”

In his address, the Chairman, Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Chike Worlu Wodo, thanked Fubara for maintaining peace in the state in the face of the unwarranted political crisis.

Eze Wodo, who is the Paramount Ruler of Apara Kingdom in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the State, urged the governor not to fall into the traps of detractors by confronting their violence with violence.

He said, “All of us know that those that are over-heating the polity have one aim: to make the State ungovernable so as to make it ripe for a declaration of State of Emergency. Please, Sir, advise your supporters to avoid every invitation to violence.

“May I also appeal to our people on all sides of the political divide to remember that we have nowhere else to call home apart from Rivers State. So, we must not allow our personal interest to destroy the peace, stability, and growth of our State.”