Families of each of the soldiers and policemen allegedly killed by members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples Organization of Biafra (IPOB) in Oyigbo last week will collect N20 million compensation, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has announced.
Wike announced this when he paid a condolence visit to the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan and families of the slain policemen at the Rivers State Police Command on Wednesday.
Kelvin Ebiri, Special Assistant (Media) to the Governor in a statement said governor Wike also pledged to rebuild all burnt police stations in Oyigbo, vowing to ensure that the terrorist organisation no longer exist in the state.
The governor who was accompanied by the Secretary to the State Government, Tammy Danagogo; the Commissioner of Information, Paulinus Nsirim; and the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Professor Zacchaeus Adangor, described the gruesome murder of the policemen and soldiers as unacceptable and unfortunate.
He stressed that the State Government would support the police to make sure that all IPOB members who masterminded the killing of the policemen and soldiers, as well as the wanton destruction of Police stations in Oyigbo are apprehended to face the full wrath of the law.
“IPOB masterminded the killing of our gallant officers of the Nigerian Police and Army. We want to state clearly that Rivers State Government will support you to make sure that any of the perpetrators of this hideous crime does not go free. Enough is enough. You cannot continue to kill our policemen who have not done anything; who have not committed any crime” he said.
The Governor vowed to ensure that IPOB will no longer exist in any part of Rivers State. According to him, the killing of policemen was one crime that the State government will never condone.
The Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan, said the Governor by his decision to commiserate with the Command and the deceased families, has demonstrated he is a compassionate father of the State.
Mukan explained that the Police and the Army have taken over all IPOB’s stronghold in Oyigbo and would ensure that the group cease to exist anywhere in the state.