{"id":295,"date":"2024-06-18T15:03:49","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/?p=295"},"modified":"2024-06-18T15:03:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:03:49","slug":"rivers-crisis-two-policemen-feared-dead-as-youths-police-takeover-council-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/2024\/06\/18\/rivers-crisis-two-policemen-feared-dead-as-youths-police-takeover-council-headquarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivers Crisis: Two Policemen Feared Dead As Youths, Police takeover Council headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is an uneasy calm across the 21 out of 23 local government areas of Rivers State following the expiration of the tenure of the council chairmen in the state.<br \/>\nEye-witness account revealed that tension is building up across the 21 LGAs of the State as Rivers youths and fully armed policemen have taken over the council secretariat.<br \/>\nThe tensed atmosphere and demonstrations by the youths and other Rivers men followed the declaration by the council chairmen that they will not vacate office when their tenure elapse on Monday June 17, 2024.<br \/>\nThe situation has sparked fears of possible outbreak of violence among residents of the state.<br \/>\nOur Correspondent gathered that in some local government headquarters in the state shows that Police vans have taken over the entrance gates of Port Harcourt City LGA, Ikwerre LGA and Obio\/Akpor Local government councils.<br \/>\nAt Degema LGA, Asari Toru LGA, Akuku-Toru LGA, Emohua LGA, Ahoada West LGA, Ogu\/Bolo LGA and Eleme LGA, mammoth crowd of youths were seen taking over the council and blocking the secretariat gates, chanting songs in solidarity and demanding the departure of the Chairmen whose tenure has elapsed.<br \/>\nThe youths vowed to remain at the gates till Wednesday to stop now ex-elected council officials from gaining access their offices.<br \/>\nThey insisted that their three-year tenure ended on June 17 and that they should not be seen around the secretariat after the Sallah holiday.<br \/>\nThe youths were heard chanting \u201cChairman must go\u201d, as others arrived the gate to join them.<br \/>\nAt Omuma local government, the youths did not only takeover the secretariat, it was reported that two police officers have been feared killed as violence broke out at the council headquarters.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, in Obio-Akpor local government area, home town of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, some youths were seen destroying a statue of the former Rivers governor, built by the out-gone Chairman, Barr. George Ariolu to honour the minister.<br \/>\nThe youths were heard chanting &#8220;There is no more Wike, no more no more, for many thousand years.&#8221;<br \/>\nThough the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara in a state broadcast this morning, directed Head of Administrations of the local government areas to take over leadership of the council, but there were indications that he (Fubara), had sent a list of caretaker committees to the lawmakers led by factional Speaker Victor Oko-Jumbo.<br \/>\nIn the meantime, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, CP Olatunji Disu has warned residents of the state against taking laws into their own hands, emphasising that anyone found breaking the law would face the full wrath of the law.<br \/>\nCP Disu while addressing newsmen at the State Police Command headquarter assured the public that the Police is committed to maintaining law and order, even as he declared his readiness to protect lives and properties in the face of ongoing tensions.<br \/>\nThe Commissioner however, urged parents to caution their children against getting involved in the crisis, warning that they should not be used as &#8220;cannon fodder.&#8221;<br \/>\nHe also vowed to protect all government property and human lives in the community, ensuring a safe and secure environment for all.<br \/>\nHe said: &#8220;My job as a police policeman protect lives and property. And that is what we have gone out to do since morning.<br \/>\n&#8220;We are aware of the crisis that has to do with the tenure of the Local Government Chairmen and we have gotten one court order or the other, and the court of Appeal has given an order for everybody to exercise restraints till the 20th of this month, just three days.<br \/>\n&#8220;So we expect everybody to respect it and not take laws into their hands and allow peace to continue as it is.&#8221;<br \/>\nDisu further assured that his officers are working round the clock to safeguard the property and lives of residents of the State.<br \/>\nHe added: &#8220;Sincerely you know our officers have been out for the past three days.<br \/>\n&#8220;I just finished addressing them and I thank them for the good job they have done and because they have been out since 4 Am, and they just came back, we are not taking it lightly, we are ready to go, our officers have been on a show of force and we have had additional men given to us from the Headquarters, the equipment has been serviced and we are ready to go.<br \/>\n&#8220;This is just to assure members of the public that so far as we are concerned we are ready to do our jobs of protecting lives and property.<br \/>\n&#8220;We have warned anybody who would want to take laws into their own hands. I want to use this opportunity to talk to parents to call their children to order and talk to them so that their children will not be used as cannon folds in this crisis.<br \/>\n&#8220;Everything that has to do with government property and every human being in this community would be protected.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is an uneasy calm across the 21 out of 23 local government areas of Rivers State following the expiration of the tenure of the council chairmen in the state. Eye-witness account revealed that tension is building up across the 21 LGAs of the State as Rivers youths and fully armed policemen have taken over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[27,187,188],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime","tag-police","tag-tension-in-ph-lgas","tag-youth-restive-ness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}