Rivers State Governor, Nyesom
Ezenwo Wike, says two kingpins of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra
(IPOB) involved in the killing of six soldiers and four policemen in Oyigbo,
have been arrested by security operatives.
He has also maintained that the
imposition of curfew in Oyigbo Local Government Area helped to prevent an
outbreak of inter-ethnic war between Igbo and Hausa communities in the area.
The Governor stated this when
Rotary District 9141 Governor, Mrs Virginia Major led a delegation of Rotarians
on a courtesy visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
He revealed that security
operatives in late hours of yesterday arrested two prominent members of IPOB in
Oyigbo.
Governor Wike 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 groups, some misguided IPOB
members, had taken this 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 will have been fighting and nobody knows what level it would have taken
today” he said.
The Governor said though he has
had frosty relationship with Nigerian Army and the Police, he will, 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.
He 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, Government will have had
any justification to declare curfew in the council.
“No government will wake up in the morning to
impose hardship on its people. No government will do that, but government has
the right to protect life” he said.
Governor 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 fresh outbreak of
polio in any part of the country.
District 9141 Governor, Virginia
Major, lauded Governor Wike 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 polio virus 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.
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