Uduaghan Fortifies Waterways Against Kidnappers, Oil Thieves

[Shola Sholaz]

With the wave of kidnapping in Delta State and his refusal to sign into law the death penalty bill on kidnappers, passed by the state House of Assembly, not a few Deltans were beginning to wonder what the feasible plan, if any, the Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has to combat the menace.
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His ban on motorcycle, otherwise known as okada transportation in Asaba, the state capital, Warri and Effurun, helped to stem the tide in the three cities, but kidnappers took their trade to nearby Sapele, Ughelli and Oleh. In fact, it is as if the more the government beefs up its strategy to curtail kidnappers, the deeper kidnappers extend their tentacles.
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While the government inaugurated a special security task force in addition to the joint and separate teams of army and police officers patrolling the state, the governor has bolstered the Delta Waterways Security Committee, DWSC, Warri, to provide security agencies with intelligence information to fight kidnappers and oil thieves in the creek.
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DWSC is the first committee that Uduaghan inaugurated when he assumed office as governor in 2007, and the group assisted in no small measure in stemming the tide of kidnapping in the creek.
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However, kidnappers shifted their activities from the waterways to the land when the creek became a no go area because of the wide tentacles of the committee, which assisted the military to recover arms seized from soldiers by militants before it was quietly dissolved.