Kpofire made street gang members in some communities to buy you drink instead of pestering you to buy them drink or give them money in the villages. This was mostly noticed in Obele/Iba in Emohua and Engenni in Ahoada West.
Kpofire made armrobbery to disappear in Rivers State by 90%. This was particularly noticed in the full stretch of East/west road, from Choba to Mbiama.
In most of the communities where Kpofire is lucrative, petty stealing reduced by 50%. In some of those communities, you can forget your item for hours and return to pick it up at the same spot.
In those communities, rape incidents reduced too, because people have the money to fund their lust. In a particular community we visited, local folks were boasting of ‘importing’ their female University friends to the Villages.
In Communities where Kpofire was bubbling, Street gang members became friendly and was engaging in charity work. Though, not all street gang members are armrobbers, but most Armrobbers are members of street gangs. 70% of these Armrobbers, got into Kpofire.
Kpofire is the major source of Kerosene in Rivers State. It’s equally the reason Kerosene and AGO is cheap.
SUBMISSION
The extreme violence in Rivers State, is as a result of poverty. If we have an industrialized economy with massive job and social programs, crime rate will drop by 80%. This culture of Rivers people being extremely violent, is new and only started from 1999. We are a peace,fun and education loving people. We recommend the kpofire operators should be grouped into corporative and empowered to start the modular refinery in the State.
