The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has imposed stricter curfew in a bid to curtail increasing attacks on police formations and general insecurity in the state.
In a statewide broadcast on Monday, the governor announced that the existing night-time curfew will now start from 7 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. until further notice from Tuesday, May 11.
Wike said, “These are extraordinary times for our country and our State. Last week Friday, we witnessed yet another multiple armed ambush on police checkpoints along the East-West road which resulted in the cold-blooded murder of 7 police officers.
“We again express our condolence to the families of the dead officers and the State’s Police Command for this irreparable loss and pray for the peaceful repose of their innocent souls.
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“We have reviewed the way and manner the recent attacks were executed and discovered that the perpetrators, who disguised themselves as security officers, moved in unhindered from Oyigbo to launch the attack.
“The nation’s security agencies are on their trail and we are confident that they will all be arrested soon and brought to justice.
“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.
“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 7 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. 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.”
The Rivers governor noted that the state government would not yet “activate our youth 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”.
However, he warned that his administration was determined to deploy everything at its disposal to advance the safety and security of lives and property in the state “and nothing will stop us from defeating the evil forces presently threatening our individual and collective security”.