Amidst increasing outcry for the lifting of curfew on Oyigbo local government of the state, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has announced the arrest of two kingpins of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) said to be involved in the killing of six soldiers and four policemen in Oyigbo. He
He also maintained that the imposition of curfew in on the area has helped to prevent an outbreak of inter-ethnic war between Igbo and Hausa communities in the area in the state.
Wike made the announcement, on Tuesday, when he received the Rotary District 9141 Governor, Mrs Virginia Major, and a delegation of Rotarians on a courtesy visit.
He revealed that security operatives in late the hours of Monday, November 2, arrested two prominent members of IPOB in Oyigbo.
The Governor explained that Rivers State was peaceful during the #EndSARS protest, until criminals, under the guise of IPOB attempted to paint the State black by killing ten security agents in Oyigbo.
He noted that while Rivers State has been home to every ethnic and religious group, some misguided IPOB members had taken it for granted by unleashing mayhem in Oyigbo and even attempted to cause inter-ethnic war.
“If we did not take the steps we took by imposing curfew in Oyigbo, today, it would have been the Hausa and Igbo that would have been fighting and nobody knows what level it would have taken today,” he said.
He pointed out that though he has had a frosty relationship with the Nigerian Army and the Police, he would, however, never tolerate the killing of any solider or police in the State.
“I will not support criminality. I won’t because the soldiers don’t like me, then you go and kill them. And then, I will come out and clap, thank you for killing the soldiers. Thank you for killing the police,” he said and urged those spreading falsehood that Igbo people are being killed and punished in Oyigbo to be dispassionate when acts of criminality are committed. According to him, if IPOB members did not kill people and destroyed properties, the Government would have not had any justification to declare curfew in the area.
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“No government will wake up in the morning to impose hardship on its people. No government will do that, but the government has the right to protect life,” he added.
Wike lauded Rotary International for collaborating with government to Kick out polio in Nigeria. He assured the Rotarians that his administration will sustain the campaign against polio because no governor will be happy to hear about the fresh outbreak of polio in any part of the country.
District 9141 Governor, Virginia Major, lauded the Governor for the manner he handled the well-intentioned EndSARS protect, which was almost hijacked by miscreants.
She noted that while the world was facing COVID-19 pandemic of unimaginable proportions, Governor Wike and his colleagues and the Federal Government did not relent in their collective efforts to support polio immunisation at all levels.
“This led to the ultimate certification of Nigeria and by extension, Africa as free of the wild poliovirus on August 2, 2020, by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” she said.
He urged the Governor to use his position to support all the renewed efforts of Government, Rotary and all its strategic partners in their quest for sustained surveillance, awareness, immunisation and of course, keeping polio at zero.