Bayelsa community alleges trawlers’ attacks – Vanguard Newspaper

By Samuel Oyadongha

YENAGOA—INDIGENES of Opu-Okumbiri community on the Atlantic fringe of Akassa in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have raised alarm over “frequent and unwarranted attacks on local fishermen along the continental shelf-shallow waters by trawlers.”

They called on the state and Federal governments to intervene in the crisis and save them from hunger and starvation since they depend on fishing for their livelihood.

The leadership of the community through its Liaison Officer, Domo Adams, lamented the excesses of the trawlers’ operators, who they accused of shooting at fishermen/women and also destroying their fishing gears.

He noted that the trend, if not checked, could put the local fishing folks out of business, thereby disrupting the peaceful traditional occupation of the rural coastal dwellers.

Recounting her ordeal, Madam Romans Kumosuote, who lost three bundles of fishing nets to the rampaging trawlers, said: “I need help to survive this hardship. I am a widow and grandmother with several children.”

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