Oyigbo residents bemoan hunger as Rivers reviews curfew

• Group condemns IPOB’s activities
Residents of Oyigbo Council Area of Rivers State, have again, urged Governor Nyesom Wike to review the 24-hour curfew imposed on the area on October 21,2020.

This followed lamentation of some residents who could no longer endure hunger, who have started stealing premature plantains, bananas and other crops from peoples’ farms.

One of the residents told The Guardian in Port Harcourt that there was no food or water in Oyigbo and that people have started harvesting other peoples’ premature plantains and bananas due to hunger.

However, Chairman of Oyigbo Council Area, Gerald Oforji, said calm has returned to the area, adding that soldiers were shooting at the sky to scare bandits and were not after innocent citizens.

Oforji, who spoke in a telephone interview said: “Oyibo is relatively calm, when I heard the news about the killings in my domain, I called the military and they explained that they were not shooting innocent citizens and showed evidence of what they have been doing and that is not what I can display publicly.

“A lot of stories have been told. People collect videos and pictures from other areas and want us to believe those things were happening in Oyigbo, but they are not true. People should stop blowing the Oyigbo incidents out of proportion,” he stated.

BESIDES, the Rivers State Security Council has relaxed the 24-hour curfew imposed on Oyigbo following the alleged killing of 10 security operatives by members of IPOB.

Commissioner of Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, disclosed this during a briefing at the Government House, Port Harcourt, yesterday, stating that the curfew will now take effect from 7:00p.m. to 6:00a.m beginning from today.

Nsirim enjoined residents of Oyigbo and members of the public to cooperate with the security agencies, as they go about their lawful business unmolested.

Governor Wike disclosed that security operatives have arrested two leaders of IPOB involved in the killing of six soldiers and four policemen in Oyigbo, just as he redeemed his pledge of N20m to the families of each of the 10 security personnel that were allegedly killed by IPOB members.

He stated this when Rotary District 9141 Governor, Mrs. Virginia Major led a delegation of Rotarians on a courtesy visit to Government House, Port Harcourt.

MEANHWILE, Secretary-General of the Lower Niger Congress, Tony Nnadi, blamed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, for the military operations in Oyigbo.

In a statement yesterday, Nnadi said the Emene and Lekki Tollgate killings were also due to the reckless comments of the IPOB leader, adding: “The 2017 Quit Notice to the Igbo from the North, which resulted in the death and dislocation of several Igbo in the North was a direct result of Kanu recklessness and his Rogue Biafra Franchise.”