Rivers: Women protest abduction of eight WAEC candidates

The protesters

Women of the Bille community in the Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State have staged a protest at the Government House, Port Harcourt, demanding the release of eight students who were abducted by suspected pirates while in a boat travelling from Port Harcourt to Bille to sit for the ongoing WAEC exams.

Recall that suspected pirates hijacked three boats with various goods and property worth millions of Naira and kidnapped 13 passengers in the Port Harcourt-Bille waterways on May 6, 2025.

Following the incident, the Chairman, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Port Harcourt Commercial District, Israel Pepple, has said they will suspend transport operations to compel the government to take the necessary action to protect the waterways from what he termed ‘incessant’ pirate attacks.

The women under the aegis of Concerned People of Bille Kingdom, clad in black attires, displayed several placards and chanted songs to drive home their demands.

Some of the inscriptions on the placards read, ‘Government save us from sea pirates’, ‘Our children going to write WAEC are with the pirates in the bush; some have been raped’, and ‘Bille people are suffering in the hands of pirates’, among others.

The women had first marched to the State Police headquarters along Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, and later moved to the Government House along Azikiwe Road ,where they terminated the protest.

Some of the women who spoke to newsmen alleged that the heavily armed pirates also raped their daughters and disposed of their belongings.

They stated that the eight students are still in the hands of their captors over a week after they were abducted along with five other passengers in a boat.

While in front of Government House, one of the protesters, an elderly woman, flung herself to the ground shouting, “Government please help me my son is inside the River (creek). Sea pirates took him inside the bush. Government please help me bring my son, don’t leave like this.