7, 000 cultists to embrace amnesty

Over 7, 000 cultists in Bayelsa State have registered with the state government to renounce their membership in a bid to embrace amnesty.

The state government is expected to rehabilitate all identified cultists that have renounced their membership to enable them fit into the society.

State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Markson Fefegha, disclosed this yesterday in Yenagoa at a briefing with journalists. He stressed that government had gone further to persuade the cultists to embrace amnesty.

It will be recalled that prior to the emergence of Governor Seriake Dickson’s administration in the state, cultism has been on a higher level resulting in insecurity in the state.

The state government took the bull by the horn to wage war against cultism by enacting a law calling for death penalty for convicted cultists.

Fefegha also said the present administration in the state had procured armoured boats to patrol the waterways to check criminality such as sea piracy and kidnapping.

He went on: “The state is safe for investors. Potential investors should come and invest in Bayelsa State. Little pockets of criminality have sprung up in the state. The state is a safe haven for tourism. The killing of the 11 policemen by a few miscreants has nothing to do with the hosting of the Africa Movies Academy Awards, AMAA, in the state.”

The commissioner debunked allegations that the hosting of AMAA was a waste of tax payers’ money, stressing that government would retrieve the funds spent on the event from the N800 million realised from the fund raising event in Abuja.