By Chris Otaigbe
“I was in the house on the 23rd of February last year. It was Election Day. My son and I arrived from Port Harcourt the previous night. He went to his polling unit to vote while I stayed in the house. I called his phone and told him that food was ready and he said he was coming to eat. After 30 minutes, I called his number again, it rang but there was no response. I became worried. A few minutes later, a boy ran into my compound, calling my father. My father was not around. I was the only one in the house. I came out and asked what the matter was and he said my son had been shot dead. I ran to the place and saw my son in a pool of blood. Some people helped to drag him to a place, where we could cover him. It was raining and his body was soaked. My relations came and we went to deposit his remains in the mortuary. We buried him after the election. They said he was shot but nobody has told me who shot him. When I went there, I saw blood coming out from his mouth, nose and all the openings in his body. I saw that bullets had pierced through his body. I also saw a bullet on the ground.”
This is the testimony of Florence Gold George, as she recalled how she got the report of her son’s tragic death. Her 23-year-old son, Samuel Sise Horsfall, was among the 37 persons killed at Abonnema during the 2019 Presidential and Governorship poll. Samuel, a twin, reportedly died of gunshot at the polling unit where he was said to have gone to cast his votes.
George was among the victims of the bloodshed that characterized the 2019 presidential election in Abonnema, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. Her story, recalled in the sea of endless tears and eternal sorrow, is one of the memories of the bloodshed that characterized the 2019 general election in Rivers State.
She said those who pulled the trigger that took her son’s life also buried his dreams. Sise was a student of Medicine, when his life was terminated and his dream of becoming a medical doctor buried with a bullet.
A report published from a research by SB Morgen, titled: Rivers of Blood: Gangs violence in Nigeria’s Garden State, sadly asserts that this is the narrative that has consistently laced modern day history of Rivers State. A tale of dreams and destinies battered by bombs and bullets, drowned or buried in blood.
“Since the end of military rule in Nigeria in 1999, gang activities and the corresponding violence have seen a gradual but steady increase in Rivers State, in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. From the formation of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (SVC) in the early 1980s at the University of Port Harcourt, various criminal gangs known as cults have sprung up in different parts of the state, with varying membership strengths, and holding different stretches of territory within the state. Prominent amongst the more than 100 cult groups known to operate in the state are the Deewell, Deebam, Icelanders, Greenlanders, Gberesaako Boys, and the Outlaws.” Began the report.”
These cult groups individually and collectively, the report stated, have constituted a menace to the inhabitants of the state, causing incalculable human and economic loss in the process. In the first decade of the century, some of these cult groups began morphing into militancy, blurring the line between groups that had always been militants and those who leveraged the organization, cult groups gave, to engage in militancy.
They ended up waging war against the oil industry for years, reducing Nigeria’s oil production output. To keep the oil flowing, government had to eventually create an amnesty programme for repentant militants, which still operate till this date. Since the reason for the formation of these cult groups and the socio-economic and socio-political issues which ensure their growth remains prominent within the society, these violent groups continue to exist, posing serious threat to lives and property and the general development of Rivers State.
As is usual with such groups controlling territories, they end up being integrated in the politics of the state, and this has made some of the groups very powerful. The Researchers submitted that it is this melting pot of socio-economics, politics, history, intertribal conflict and violent agitation for resource control that brings a unique bent to the cult issue in Rivers State.
In a manner of speaking, these groups can actually be described as evolving Warlords training and developing confraternities they put together as students in the nation’s tertiary institutions, into full-blown private armies. Using the failed political and socio-economic system of the State, they use every politically motivated violence to practice and hone their craft of achieving a formidable army that would be strong enough to hold down designated territories within their jurisdiction or control. At other times and in most cases, they thrive on preying on staff and infrastructure of International Oil Companies (IOCs) within the axis of their control. Monies, in ransom, collected from these firms serve to fund their militant organizations in readiness for an eventual war.
The history of cult groups in Rivers state can be traced to the formation of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (SVC) also known as ‘the Adventurers’ or ‘the De Norsemen Club of Nigeria’ at the University of Port Harcourt in 1984, by a former member of the Buccaneers Confraternity. In 1991, Onengiye Ofori Terika, a member of the Klansmen Konfraternity (KK), popularly known as Occasion Boys, formed the Deebam cult group in his community Bukuma, in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State. The group was meant to serve as the street wing of the Klansmen Konfraternity formed in the University of Calabar in 1983, and to fight for compensation owed by Shell and other oil companies to the Bukuma community.
To reduce the influence of the KK in Rivers State, and maintain territorial control, in the early 1990s, the SVC chose to form its own street wing, which it termed the Junior Vikings Confraternity (JVC) as a counter to the Occasion Boys led by the Deebam group.
The JVC venture was unsuccessful but it eventually laid the foundation for the formation of the Deewell group in the Diobu axis of Port Harcourt. With the Deewell group losing territory and members, in the early 2000s, it was unable to match the ruthlessness and seeming effectiveness of the Deebam group, despite its alleged support from the state government.
Termed the ‘5 Wise Men’, a group of five SVC members, which came together, included Ateke Tom and Julius Oruitemeka, who were then trained on the practices of the new group codenamed ‘Icelanders’. It was then handed over to Ateke Tom, who was the leader of the street cult group known as ‘The Uglies’, to manage.
As manifested in the Ateke Tom-led coalition, the cult groups made up of members who are fairly politically-literate and hoping to play on the political turf, set out to give a human and people-salvation face to their militant groups.
According to the report, the Icelanders cult group set up its base in Okochiri in Okrika Local Government of Rivers State, the home of Ateke Tom. Overtime, and in a bid to rebrand and fend off negative perception its violent activities had brought, the group was rechristened the Niger Delta Vigilante Service (NDVS).
Formed at different points in time in the history of Rivers State, the proliferation of these groups has, in many cases, been at the behest of politicians seeking power and consequently funding and arming these cult groups to unleash violence on opponents and to ensure seamless rigging into office.
It is for this reason that elections in Rivers State have continued to see violence as reported by the SBM on different occasions. One instance of this, is the Gberesaako Boys. A cult group confined to the Ogoni axis of Rivers State, it was, allegedly, put together by the Gokana Council Chairman in 2001 using funds from the Local Government’s Security Vote.
Armed with various armaments including automatic weapons, the group was then used during the 2003 and 2007 elections in the area. Held in the pool of the blood of its citizens, the 2015 elections in Rivers contained blatant display of violence, which caused elections not to be held in Abonnema for example, results were declared for the community, anyway.
“The situation was hardly different four years later during the 2019 presidential elections when a man, Thywill Dabotubo was shot by gunmen dressed in military uniform while waiting to cast his vote. In the same place, a staff member of INEC, Ibisaki Amachree was killed by a stray bullet. Rivers State witnessed some of the most violent incidents relating to the election. Despite the army uniforms involved in Abonnema, many people interviewed at the time believed that the perpetrators were actually gang members.
Since socio-political and socio-economic issues play an important part in the formation of armed groups, a good number of the armed groups formed in Rivers State have community backing and serve as vigilantes and community armies used to wage communal warfare revolving around land ownership, and chieftaincy disagreements. The Bush Boys of Okrika was formed for this particular purpose, so cannot be referred to as a cult group.” The Report affirmed.
The report further added that the Bush Boys were formed by the Chiefs and community members of Okrika to serve as a vigilante group for Okrika due to a territorial dispute between Okrika and Eleme revolving around the land housing the Port Harcourt Refinery.
The settlement of the issue and financial benefits to be derived, the report revealed, saw the Bush Boys engaging in battles with the Eleme community. The Bush Boys group would later be routed from Okrika before the 2003 general elections by the Rivers PDP- backed Iceland group led by Ateke Tom. This was done to ensure the state governor at the time, Peter Odili, gained control of Okrika, which had been an ANPP stronghold prior to that time. A noted leader of Bush Boys, Sunday Opuambe was gunned down in the Abuloma area of Port Harcourt by suspected members of the Greenlanders group in February 2009.
Comparing the Rivers situation to similar foreign examples, the report concluded that the crave to gain political and economic control of territories are the reason for the emergence of these militant combatants and the resulting gang wars.
“As has been seen in many places all over the world including Honduras, Mexico and Columbia, gang culture has roots in socio-economic problems. The Rivers gang problem is no different. The lack of opportunity caused by the devastation of communities due to oil exploration and the Nigerian situation, coupled with the visible inequality made the development of fringe slums like the aptly named Columbia community in Port Harcourt in the 1980s.” the report noted.
Communities like these, it concluded, operate on the fringe of society as ungoverned spaces and are the breeding grounds for gang activity. Once these mix with the organizational capabilities provided by student cult groups, they provide the much-needed structure that Rivers gangs have shown.
Drawing similarities with the Brazilian experience, the report stated that a similar meta situation is what is seen in the favelas of Brazil where the educated leftists locked up with gang leaders, brought the structure that has empowered these gangs. However, according to findings from the research, there are two other crucial ingredients, which makes the problem become all permeating and near intractable.
First, the involvement of political patronage in gangs. This provides funding, as well as cover for impunity and some degrees of legitimacy for the gang leaders. We have seen this in Rivers State repeatedly as this report has shown.
A final point to note is that many of these gangs start with community support; while ultimately; a second is a means of income for these gangs that is independent of the government in Rivers, as provided through oil bunkering and kidnapping.
Since community base is integral to the operation of these gangs, it is imperative that Government recognize that the solution is not a token locking up or killing of gang leaders, as it changes nothing but only brings about violence.
Fighting, by these gangs, will always ensue to take over the lucrative structures, once a leader is gone.
Prescribing an antidote to the problem, the Researchers believe what is more important is to get to the root cause of the matter, adding that the solution lies in addressing socio-economic and legitimacy issues that make communities turn to gangs in the first place, as well as the justice issues and the myopia of political operatives who prefer to take the shortcut of gang violence to win elections.
Without tackling these, the report concluded that the head of the hydra will always regrow, irrespective of how many times or how many heads are cut.
From SB Morgen’s damning assessment of the Rivers State experience in the hands of armed Gangs, it is clear that this South-South state, which is the major seat of Nigeria’s mono-economic revenue resource is ruled, successively by SUCCESSFUL WARLORS, in Gang wars to gain control of power and the seat of government in the state.
What is worrisome is the fact, in a country where a similar concept of political arrangement runs across the federation, it doubtful that there can ever be an end to this continuing sordid season of bloodshed in River State. Annoying is the fearful reality that many more Florence Gold Georges would continue to lose their children to these needless gang wars, just as destinies of many bright minds in the state would consistently be buried bombs, bullets and consequently drowned in blood.
Finally, this dreadful Rivers tale, as cautionary as it is, in its expository outlook, would remain a recurring decimal in growing dimension, until a true visionary leader and patriot would emerge to put a decisive end to this orgy of bloodbath.
Whoever he maybe, he may also have no choice but to apply a more deadly and higher violence to dislodge and ultimately eliminate all these established bands of sophisticated bandits prowling around the political and power landscape of Rivers State.
