Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Monday extended the night curfew across the 23 local government areas of the state from 7 p.m. to 6 am in order to stop the frequent attacks on security agents and formations in the state.
The extension of the curfew will, however, take effect from Tuesday.
He said the decision was taken in the wake of multiple armed ambushes on police checkpoints along the East-West road, resulting in the cold-blooded murder of seven police officers over the weekend.
Wike, in a state broadcast on Monday, announced that the State Security Council had reviewed the way and manner the recent attacks were carried out and discovered that the perpetrators, who disguised themselves as security officers, moved in unhindered from Oyigbo to launch the attack.
Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, on Monday, relayed the Wike’s broadcast to journalists in PortHarcourt, the state capital.
According to the statement, “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.
“We have reviewed, and for the moment, declined the pressure on the State Government to 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.”
The governor, who consoled the families of the dead officers and the State’s Police Command for the irreparable loss, declared that the government and security agencies were determined to deploy everything at their disposal to safeguard lives and property in the state.
“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 added.