Wike reviews Rivers curfew from 7pm to 6am

By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has reviewed the curfew he imposed on the state following recent attacks on police formations.

The governor in a statewide broadcast on Monday said the curfew would now begin from 7pm to 6am with effect from Tuesday instead of the hitherto 10pm to 6am.

Wike said the review was done to stem dastardly attacks on security formations in the state by bandits.

He said the decision was taken following multiple ambush on police checkpoints along the East-West road, which resulted in the cold-blooded murder of seven police officers at the weekend.

The governor said the state’s security-council reviewed the way and manner the recent attacks were executed and discovered that the perpetrators, who disguised themselves as security officers, came from Oyigbo to launch the attack.

He said: “However, as a further step towards enhancing our collective safety we have reviewed the existing night time curfew across the 23 local government areas, which will now start from 7pm and end at 6am until further notice from tomorrow 11th May 2021.

“The security agencies are hereby directed to note the new curfew time, ensure strict compliance and effectively deal with any person or group that violates or attempts to violate it.

“We have reviewed, and for the moment, declined the pressure on the state government to activate our youths to defend the state from these terrorists because we don’t want to complicate our very delicate security situation by creating opportunities for some other monsters to emerge.”

Wike consoled the families of the dead officers and the state’s police command for their loss.

He declared that the government and security agencies were determined to deploy everything at their disposal to advance the safety and security of lives and property in the state.

The governor explained that security agencies were on the trail of the gunmen, who attacked security formations in the state.

He expressed optimism that the culprits would all be arrested soon and brought to justice.

He said nothing would stop the government from defeating the evil forces presently threatening the individual and collective security of the state.

He said: “We wish to assure every resident that we are not intimidated by the sporadic and cowardly attacks on predetermined security targets by faceless criminals on our soil, neither will we be cowed into succumbing to a baseless and doomed secessionists agenda.”

Wike appealed to residents of the state for understanding saying the government was not unmindful of the difficulty the curfew would inflict on them.

He, however, assured them that the aim of government’s action was to achieve and sustain the maximum security of lives and property.

He said: “We further appeal to the public to understand that security is everybody’s business and play their own roles, especially in passing intelligence information to the law enforcement agencies to process and take preemptive measures to counter and advance our collective security.”

Meanwhile, there were reports of sporadic gunshots at the Kala Police station Mile Four and the Rumuji Division.

But sources claimed that policemen at the stations were behind the shooting