The inspector general of police, Solomon Arase has warned all Biafra agitators and protesters to refrain from threatening peace in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the force public relations officer, Olabisi Kolawole, the IGP issued a stern warning to the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) activists.
Arase said the groups and its members must desist from threatening the peace of the nation or face the full wrath of the law.
He said the police has observed prolific resorts to protests around Southeastern Nigeria.
Arase said: “The latest manifestation of this threat is the attempt to blockade the Onitsha end of Niger Bridge on December 1, 2015, an action that caused major hardship to innocent and law abiding motorists, and citizens. The act also occasioned serious dislocation of business activities.”
The police chief said the threat by the groups and its members is an attempt to test the will of security agencies in Nigeria.
He further said the maintenance of law and order in the country is a statutory responsibility of the Nigeria police and this law shall be fully executed in the overriding interest of the nation and citizens especially those resident in the southeast.
Arase also ordered the deployment of police mobile force across Nigeria to reinforce security in all the state commands.
From the IGPs’s directive, the assistant inspectors general of police zone 5, Benin; Zone 6, Calabar and Zone 9 in Umuahia and all commissioners of police in the affected states in the Southeast and its neigbouring states have also been directed to maximally exercise their statutory mandate in relation to prevention and disruption of any gathering that threatens public order and national cohesion.
“Any person or group of persons so arrested in furtherance to the enforcement of this order will be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Arase said.
Arase also advised parents and guardians to call their wards to order. He said no individual or group interest can override that of the nation.
On Tuesday, December 2, some Biafra agitators blocked the entrance to the Niger Bridge from Onitsha preventing motorists form using the bridge.
This action came after a magistrate court hearing the case against the Biafra leader and director of the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu failed to sit on Tuesday, December 1, due to the death of the magistrate’s father.
No comments:
Post a Comment