BAYELSA MOVES TO STOP PIRACY, BOKO HARAM INCURSION

Yenagoa - The security agencies in Bayelsa State have intensified efforts to prevent members of the Boko Haram sect from infiltrating the state as well as stem the tide of piracy in the predominantly riverine state.

Vanguard gathered that the security chiefs in the state drawn from the Police, Army, Navy, Air Force and State Security Service, SSS, were, yesterday, locked in a security meeting with the state governor, Mr. Timipre Sylva, which lasted several hours.

The governor,  it was learnt, was troubled by the resurgence of sea piracy on the waterways after the recent lull recorded in the aftermath of the Federal Government amnesty programme for arms- bearing militias in the Niger Delta.

Riverine travellers in the state had lately come under intense pirate attacks, prompting some concerned Bayelsans to call on the authorities to beef up security on the waterways in the state.

Already, there is a high presence of security operatives patrolling the streets of the capital.

Briefing newsmen, yesterday, shortly before parading four suspected hoodlums and 11 suspected teenage cultists at the state Police Command, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Aliyu Musa, urged parents to spend quality time with their children and wards with a view to preventing them from being lured into criminality by their peers.

Assuring residents of their safety, he said, the police have perfected strategy to stem piracy on the state waterways as well as prevent members of the Boko Haram sect from infiltrating the state.

'We are collaborating with other security agencies to rid Bayelsa Sate of criminal elements,' he said,  adding that battle- ready operatives had been deployed to strategic places,  including the state waterways to maintain security.

He warned  would-be trouble-makers to stay away from the state in their interest as the wrath of the law would be brought on any offender caught breaching the peace.