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By Emmanuel Sunday
The Ironye family and people of Aggah community in Egbema District in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State have raised alarm over the safety and whereabouts of their son, Mr. Johnny Ironye.
Our correspondent gathered that Mr. Johnny Ironye, former chairman of a local vigilant group in the community, sometime in October 2020, escaped alleged assassination attempt by some members of an alleged illegal oil bunkering syndicate operating in the Egbema axis of both Rivers and Imo states.
The assassination attempt, our correspondent said, was suspected to be in connection with his gallantry in exposing to security agents, the illegal activities of the said syndicate, which “posed a serious threat and grave danger to not only the environment, but lives and property of the people.”
A community source who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the alleged assassination plot against the former vigilant group leader led to him “fleeing the country to an unknown destination for years now, for fear of being killed by the amorphous gang whose illegal oil bunkering activities have continued to wreak havoc in and around the Egbema land.”
The sourced noted that the government, especially at the local level, has not bothered to ask or locate his whereabouts nor ensure that those behind these illegal activities are brought to book.
Recall that in 2022, over a hundred lives were reported to have died in an inferno that engulfed some Egbema communities in Imo State as a result of illegal oil bunkering activities that some claim has continued unabated.
A community leader who refused to be named bemoaned the fate of Johnny Ironye and “other patriotic youths like him who have resolved to checkmate the criminal elements involved in crude oil theft and vandalisation of oil facilities in the area, without the requisite support from the government.”
He said; “If the government does not care about the security and welfare of its good citizens who oppose wrong actions of some youths like in the case of Mr. Johnny Ironye, it will discourage other good citizens from fighting the evil in the society the same way our brother Johnny did for fear of their life.”
He said other volunteer members of the vigilante group in the area now live in fear as a result of the same thing Ironye “fought hard to stop, but to no avail.”
The Rivers State Police Command was yet to react to the development as the PPRO, could not be reached as at press time.
