Rivers monarch protests the arrest of a passenger boat, and the Navy launches an investigation

The Bille Council of Chiefs in Rivers State’s Degema Local Government Area has accused the military of detaining a passenger boat traveling to Port Harcourt, the state capital.

The chiefs also claimed that the security operatives who intercepted the boat they were traveling in requested that the chiefs hand over some personnel from a local vigilante in Bille before the passengers could be released.

Ben Dokubo, Chairman of Bille Council of Chiefs, who made the allegation, told journalists that they were being escorted by vigilantes on their way to Port Harcourt from Bille when their convoy was approached by two military gunboats.

“We, as the chiefs and elders of the community, explained to them that we were Bille people and not criminals; that the criminals were fighting us, but we hadn’t seen them,” he said.

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“These (military) people wanted to know why we were using escorts.” But, of course, we weren’t transporting anything illegal or illegitimate.

“Because they were unable to reach the escort boat, they impounded an innocent passenger boat from Bille, stating that they would not release the passengers unless the escort boat was returned to them.”

He claimed that security agencies in the area, including the police and the Department of State Services, had profiled the local vigilante in Bille.

According to our correspondence, the female passengers on the passenger boat were later released.

When contacted, Lt.-Commander Richard Iginla, spokesman for the Nigerian Navy Ship Pathfinder in Rivers State, said he had heard the allegations and that the incident was being investigated.

“Yes, we were aware of it. However, neither the Nigerian Navy Ship Pathfinder nor the Navy Command in Bonny are aware of it. “However, we are conducting an investigation to determine what really occurred,” Iginla stated.