Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has announced that the state government would meet over alleged extra-judicial killings in Oyigbo.
The governor spoke Tuesday in an AIT interview on the situation in Oyigbo.
“The story of house to house killings in Oyigbo is false but as a further measure, we have called for a Security Council meeting to review the security situation in Oyigbo”, he said.
Wike restated his vow that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) will not be allowed to operate in the state.
The military is on a mission to apprehend the culprits. Troops are looking for bodies of slain soldiers.
The Rivers helmsman noted that the state was peaceful before IPOB killed six soldiers, four policemen, destroyed all the police stations and courts in Oyigbo.
“IPOB went on to attack the Hausas and I called for the curfew when it was degenerating into a tribal conflict. Everybody knows if there is one person the military doesn’t like, it is me. But that the Army doesn’t like me doesn’t mean I shouldn’t speak the truth. Nobody has criticized the Police or Army more than me but you don’t go and kill them and expect me to tell you well done.
“Saying I sent soldiers to Oyigbo to kill Igbo people is nonsense because I have no relationship with the Army and can’t command the Army, I can’t even command the police much more to direct the Army. What I said and still maintain is that security agencies should maintain the ban on IPOB. No sane govt would sit back and encourage the kind of destruction they carried out”, he said.
Wike stressed that the only problem with Oyigbo were the activities of IPOB not Igbo people.
The governor recalled that Rivers and South-East people have lived peacefully and intermarried for many years.
Wike appealed to Oyigbo people to assist in flushing out “IPOB extremists” among them.
