Insecurity: Wike extends dusk-to-dawn curfew in Rivers ‘until further notice’

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, has extended the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the 23 LGAs of the state.

On April 29, the governor had announced the curfew in order to curb insecurity in the state.

In a statewide broadcast on Monday, Wike said the security council reviewed the current security situation and decided to extend the curfew until further notice.

He cited the ambush on police stations and a security checkpoint along the east-west road, which resulted in the murder of seven police officers over the weekend, adding that the state will take decisive steps to curb such attacks.

“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 7pm and end at 6am until further notice from tomorrow 11th May, 2021,” Wike said.

“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 youths 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.

“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 secessionist agenda.

“We further appeal to the public to understand that security is everybody’s business and play their own roles, especially in passing intelligence information to the law enforcement agencies to process and take pre-emptive measures to counter and advance our collective security.”

Wike added that security agencies are on the trail of the gunmen who attacked security formations in the state, noting that the culprits will be arrested soon and brought to justice.