Ateke is a criminal - Amaechi

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt - 04.01.2008

THE Rivers State governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has described Mr. Tom Ateke, the cult leader who claimed responsibility for the killings in Port Harcourt on Monday as a criminal who had no part in the Niger Delta struggle.

Governor Amaechi, who said this during a tour of the Evil Forest in Okochiri, Okrika Local Government Area of the state, challenged the cult kingpin to present himself to the law enforcement agencies in the state if his activities were not criminal.

The Evil Forest in Okochiri is where Ateke had reportedly held sway and had performed all manners of activities like training of cultists in the use of arms, torturing and killing of innocent people, as well as performance of rituals.

He said Ateke’s activities were not part of the struggle for the development of the Niger Delta, but an organised criminal business.

“We have seen that actually, this is an Evil Forest where they have a shrine and where they practice how to shoot, but how does the worshipping of juju, charming of people and killing of innocent souls constitute the struggle for the Niger Delta?” Governor Amaechi asked.

The governor, who described Ateke Tom as an outright criminal, challenged him to come out and face the law if he is not a criminal, since accordingly to him, the police had already declared him wanted.

He expressed happiness that the world had seen and taken records of the kind of atrocities perpetrated by the Okrika-born suspected cultist, disclosing that government would work with the community on what to do with the Evil Forest, stressing that until that was done, the Joint Task Force would have to remain there.