The Senate has raised the alarm over frightening spate of killings in Rivers State.
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said that all forms of criminality must be tackled frontally in the interest of the country.
The Senate President recalled that the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, assured that insecurity in Rivers State, just like in other states, will not be treated with kid gloves.
The security situation in the State was brought to the Senate’s notice by Senator Andrew Uchendu (River East), who reported the rising spate of killings in Rivers State.
Uchendu, in his lead debate, pointed out that he was aware that the killing of innocent citizens as a result of murder, kidnapping, violence or abduction has been the bane of Rivers State for more than a decade.
The lawmaker noted that the killings assumed a dangerous proportion before, during, and after the 2015 general elections.
He expressed worries that the nature of killings in the state assumed “a more horrendous dimension by the decapitation and or dismembering of body parts, including beheading of victims.”
Uchendu said that he learnt that “a new twist has now being added to this sacrilegious conduct by not only killing by beheading but also by having the corpses burnt.”
He informed the Senate that at about 9.00pm on Sunday, 19th May, 2019, “unknown gunmen invaded Isiodu Community in Emohua LGA, Rivers State and killed three young men between 23 and 30 and unashamedly burnt the corpses.”
According to the lawmaker, the killings spread across the length and breadth of Rivers State.
Uchendu noted that he is aware that “the primary responsibility of any responsive government is the provision of security of life and property of its citizens.”
The Ikwere-born lawmaker further informed the Senate that “in Rivers State, life has become more brutish and worthless, since anybody can be killed, kidnapped or abducted at any time of the day.”
He was alarmed that no meaningful strategy had been put in place to check the unbridled development in the polity.
The Senate, however, resolved to urge the Federal and the Rivers State Governments to set up strategic measures that would stop the rising cases of killings in the state.
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