Chairmen of 23 Local Government areas of Rivers, including youths in the respective councils, have been charged to fish out members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples Organisation of Biafra (IPOB) in the State.
This was disclosed in a statement in Port Harcourt on Monday by Mr Kelvin Ebiri, Special Assistant (Media) to the Governor
Ebiri stated that Gov, Nyesom Wike of Rivers gave the charge on Monday at a meeting with the Councils’ chairmen, Community Development Committees and youths leaders at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
According to the statement, the governor also warned that any council chairman that allows IPOB to hold processions and hoist its flag within their jurisdiction in Rivers State, risk sack.
The governor described Rivers as the most accommodating state for all Nigerians where there had never been any historical incident of different ethnic groups clashing.
“We can never be against any ethnic group. We can never do that. We have lived in harmony with the Igbo, Hausa, and with Edo people.
“Everybody that comes to this state we have lived in harmony with. And so Nigerians must commend Rivers State as a place where you have never had problem between this group and that group,’’ the statement added.
Wike also maintained in the statement that the people of Rivers believed in the unity of the country.
The statement also added that the people of Rivers will not allow those he described as criminals under the aegis of a terrorist group to continue to threaten the stability of the state.
“There is one terrorist group they call IPOB. I did not declare them terrorist group, the court declared them terrorist group. Not me. The federal government declared them a terrorist group.
“IPOB cannot use Rivers state to be place where they will be launching attack. If you allow that, your future, your children’s future is gone,’’ Wike said.
The statement added that the governor, infuriated by IPOB’s effrontery to hoist its flag in Oyigbo, “directed the council chairman to ensure there will not be another occurrence of this treasonous act’’.
It stated: “Go to Oyigbo and see what they have done; destroyed the court. What did the court do?
“See the soldiers they killed and burnt them. See the policemen they killed and burnt them and then you said people will sit and fold their arms”.
The governor, who called for vigilance on the part of the people of Rivers, warned that“ IPOB members should not delude themselves because Rivers state cannot be colonised or annexed by any group’’ during his administration of the State.
Wike was quoted in the statement as explaining that while every Nigerian is allowed to reside in Rivers, those who wished to do so must live in peace with the people of the State.
“Ibos are living and doing their business here and they will continue to live and do their business here. We support that.
“But that terrorist group call IPOB, cannot determine what happens in our state; to tell us where they own. It will never happen and we must not allow it to happen,’’ Wike said.
He also emphasised that nobody of Igbo extraction legitimately residing and doing business in the state must be harassed.
“But there are criminal elements that we must not allow, and the criminal elements are those who said they are IPOB members. Federal government has proscribed them, I have proscribed them.
“We cannot allow it. All our vigilantee groups must be encouraged. Everybody must be at alert; work with the security agencies to make sure nothing called IPOB exist in this state.
No procession. Not even a meeting anywhere. Identify where they hold meetings,’’ he said.
