Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed the arrest of two kingpins of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) suspected to be involved in the killing of six soldiers and four policemen in Oyigbo Local Government Area, by security forces.
Governor Wike also said imposition of curfew in Oyigbo council helped to prevent an outbreak of inter-ethnic war between Igbo and Hausa communities in the area.
He stated this when Rotary District 9141 Governor, Virginia Major, led a delegation of Rotarians on a courtesy visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt, yesterday.
He revealed that security operatives in late hours of yesterday, arrested two prominent members of IPOB in Oyigbo.
The governor said Rivers was peaceful during the EndSARS protest until criminals, under the guise of IPOB, attempted to paint the state black by killing 10 security agents in Oyigbo.
He said while the state has been home to every ethnic and religious groups, 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 will have been the Hausa and Igbo that will have been fighting and nobody knows what level it will have taken today,” he said.
The governor said, though he has had frosty relationship with 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 expect me to come out and clap, thank you for killing the soldiers. Thank you for killing the police, I will not,” he said.
He urged those spreading falsehood that Igbo people were 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 destroy property, state government would have not 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 would sustain the campaign against polio because no governor will be happy to hear about fresh outbreak of polio in any part of the country.
Major lauded Governor Wike for the manner he handled the well-intentioned EndSARS protest, which was almost hijacked by miscreants.
She said while the world was facing COVID-19 pandemic of unimaginable proportions, Governor Wike and his colleagues as well as 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,” she said.